• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

The Most Important Day

The most important day

  • Christmas

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • Birthday

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • National Independence

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • New Year's

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Thanksgiving

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • Halloween

    Votes: 3 30.0%

  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .

nPeace

Veteran Member
Of the following, what is the most important day(s) to you, and why, and in what order would you arrange these.
Christmas
Halloween
Birthday
National Independence
New Year's
Thanksgiving
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
Of the following, what is the most important day(s) to you, and why, and in what order would you arrange these.
Christmas
Halloween
Birthday
National Independence
New Year's
Thanksgiving
1) Christmas (carols, family visiting, cards to friends and relations, Christmas tree)
2) Easter (not on the list for some reason, even though the most important feast in the church's year)
3) New Year (visiting family)
4) Birthday (my son expects to give me a present and go out to dinner)
5) Halloween (just to get some sweets in the house for children calling)
Others not applicable.
 

nPeace

Veteran Member
1) Christmas
2) New Year
3) Birthday
4) Halloween (just to get sweets in the house for children calling)
Others not applicable.
I apologize for the mix up in the voting section. i corrected it, if you want to cast your vote there.
 

Regiomontanus

Ματαιοδοξία ματαιοδοξιών! Όλα είναι ματαιοδοξία.
Of the following, what is the most important day(s) to you, and why, and in what order would you arrange these.
Christmas
Halloween
Birthday
National Independence
New Year's
Thanksgiving


Christmas and Thanksgiving are the only ones I care about really, though Halloween is fun :)
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
Well, only one of those is (almost) a religious holiday for me, albeit Halloween is a different beast than Midautumn is. The only other one on the list that has any importance to me is Independence Day, mainly because it is a time to honor one's homeland. Which I don't usually feel like honoring. I'm not much of a patriot.
 

Flame

Beware
1) Birthdays. Daughter's and fiancee's birthdays is pretty important to me

2) Halloween. Candy and binge watching horror films.

3) Christmas. The only real time that the whole family can come together.
 

rocala

Well-Known Member
Very sentimental about Christmas. My country has been independant since the Romans left (unspecified date). Thanksgiving, whats that?
 

Woberts

The Perfumed Seneschal
Birthday: It marks a semi-important event in my life.
Halloween: I'm a massive horror fan.
Christmas: Eh, it's sorta fun.
Thanksgiving: Food is always great.
New year's: Down near the bottom because it marks something unimportant and pretty arbitrary.
Independence day: Same reasons for New Year's, but with a dash of patriotism.
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Birthday because it proves the universe was created just for me. I have my own special day to prove it.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
July 4th and new years. The former cause I'm grateful what we have today we probably not have the same rights as if we didnt declare our independence.

New years cause I'm grateful we got through one new year of our lives and Im still here to experience one more ride.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Of the following, what is the most important day(s) to you, and why, and in what order would you arrange these.
Christmas
Halloween
Birthday
National Independence
New Year's
Thanksgiving

National Independence Day.
I like fireworks.
 

nPeace

Veteran Member
Does anyone know the origin of the holiday they consider the most important?
Did you know for example, what the most important day to a Satanist, is and the reason for celebrating it?.

Back in 1969 Anton Lavey wrote The Satanic Bible. On page 96 (in the 1976 version) it mentions birthdays:
The Satanist feels: “Why not really be honest and if you are going to create a god in your image, why not create that god as yourself.” Every man is a god if he chooses to recognize himself as one. So, the Satanist celebrates his own birthday as the most important holiday of the year.

Satanic holidays - Wikipedia
In The Satanic Bible, Satanist Anton LaVey writes that "after one's own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays are Walpurgisnachtand Halloween ". Other holidays are the two solstices and the two equinoxes. Five to six weeks after each of the solstices and equinoxes are the "legendary Satanic revels" (a reference to the cross-quarter days).


Would it be surprising to know how far back birthday celebrations go?
Interestingly, the Bible mentions two birthday celebrations - one by a Pharaoh, and one by Herod. ...but to some this is folklore right?
Genesis 40:20; Matthew 14:6

Is it really though?
Ancient Persia
According to Herodotus (5th century BC), of all the days in the year, the one which the Persians celebrate most is their birthday.

Ancient Rome
The Romans enthusiastically celebrated birthdays with hedonistic parties and generous presents.

Birthday
Abstract
In the Greek world, the birthdays (genethlioshemera) of important Olympian gods were celebrated on certain days of the month; so, for example, the seventh day of the new lunar cycle, when the moon was half full, was sacred to Apollo, whose festivals ordinarily were celebrated then, and whose birthday was supposed to be, in the Attic and Ionian calendars, on day 7 of the month Thargelion.

The [Persian] king’s birthday is celebrated every year in a feast called tyktá (9.110-11; cf. Briant, 1996, pp. 330, 984).

There is evidence that birthday celebrations went all the way back before the 5th century BCE.

Do they have any connection with gods though, as seems to be suggested in Satanic observations?

https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Argetsinger_Birthday.pdf
The people of late republican Rome celebrated at least three different types of dies natales. In the private sphere, Roman men and women marked their own birthdays and the birthdays of family members and friends with gift giving and banquets. In the public sphere, the natales of temples and the natales of cities were observed; these "birthdays" were actually the anniversaries of the days on which particular cults, or cities, had been founded. In addition to these, from the time of the principate, the people of Rome celebrated annually the birthdays of past and present emperors and members of the imperial family, as well as the emperors' natales imperii, or accession days.

Each of these various types of natalis called for the performance of particular religious rituals. Thus the birthdays of private individuals were more closely related to the birthdays of temples and cities than might first appear to be the case, for each private birthday, too, commemorated the anniversary of a particular cult foundation, namely, the cult of an individual's personal genius or Juno. It was to this personal deity that each individual owed an offering on his or her birthday, together with vota that the offering would be renewed the following year should the protection of the deity continue.


Festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti
The Philocalian calendar of AD 354 gives a festival of "Natalis Invicti" on 25 December.

Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun") was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers. On 25 December 274 AD the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree about whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol, a revival of the cult of Elagabalus, or completely new. The god was favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until Constantine I. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to AD 387, and there were enough devotees in the fifth century that the Christian theologian Augustine found it necessary to preach against them.

Saturnalia
In Rome, where winters were not as harsh as those in the far north, Saturnalia - a holiday in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture - was celebrated. Beginning in the week leading up to the winter solstice and continuing for a full month, Saturnalia was a hedonistic time, when food and drink were plentiful and the normal Roman social order was turned upside down. For a month, slaves would become masters. Peasants were in command of the city. Business and schools were closed so that everyone could join in the fun.

Also around the time of the winter solstice, Romans observed Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of Rome. In addition, members of the upper classes often celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun, on December 25. It was believed that Mithra, an infant god, was born of a rock. For some Romans, Mithra’s birthday was the most sacred day of the year.

https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas
In Scandinavia, the Norse celebrated Yule from December 21, the winter solstice, through January. In recognition of the return of the sun, fathers and sons would bring home large logs, which they would set on fire. The people would feast until the log burned out, which could take as many as 12 days. The Norse believed that each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf that would be born during the coming year.

Christmas | Origin, Definition, History, & Facts
The precise origin of assigning December 25 as the birth date of Jesus is unclear. The New Testament provides no clues in this regard. December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date. One widespread explanation of the origin of this date is that December 25 was the Christianizing of the dies solis invicti nati (“day of the birth of the unconquered sun”), a popular holiday in the Roman Empire that celebrated the winter solstice as a symbol of the resurgence of the sun, the casting away of winter and the heralding of the rebirth of spring and summer. Indeed, after December 25 had become widely accepted as the date of Jesus’ birth, Christian writers frequently made the connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Son. One of the difficulties with this view is that it suggests a nonchalant willingness on the part of the Christian church to appropriate a pagan festival when the early church was so intent on distinguishing itself categorically from pagan beliefs and practices.

This Is Why You Get To Celebrate Your Birthday Every Year
1. Egyptians started the party

When pharaohs were crowned in ancient Egypt they were considered to have transformed into gods. This divine promotion made their coronation date much more important than their birth into the world. Scholars have pointed to the Bible’s reference of a Pharaoh’s birthday as the earliest known mention of a birthday celebration (around 3,000 B.C.E.), but Egyptologist Dr. James Hoffmeier believes this is referencing the subject’s coronation date, since that would have been the Pharaoh’s “birth” as a god.

Despite whoever started birthday observances, one thing seems clear.
So-called primitive people that were ignorant of sensible science, so called, 'irrationally worshiped gods, and foolish enough to believe these gods impacted their lives', originated birthday observances to gods, whether they viewed themselves as such, made them by hand, or otherwise believed in them.

Does anyone else find this as interesting as I do?
Don't atheist take part in birthday observances, or celebrations?
Do you think one who doesn't believe in gods, should be celebrating a ritualistic event that originated with honor of gods especially by those they consider ignorant, and believing in stupidity in the form of mythological beings?
Should we think twice about partaking in these events?
 
Last edited:
Top