Thank you. Happy holidays to you and yours.So happy to see you posting, we missed you. Happy holidays SF
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What are you celebrating?
- Thread starter Deidre
- Start date
Sad.I celebrate Christmas, mainly because it has turned into a largely secular holiday. Of course, the consumerism clashes with my political ideology, but the revolution can wait.
As for celebrations with family, I don't have any family to celebrate with. At least, family that isn't around the world.
We probably could do with some extra people here. How far away are you?I celebrate Christmas, mainly because it has turned into a largely secular holiday. Of course, the consumerism clashes with my political ideology, but the revolution can wait.
As for celebrations with family, I don't have any family to celebrate with. At least, family that isn't around the world.
Woberts
The Perfumed Seneschal
It depends on where you're at. I'm going to guess... Sweden?
You, or me? LOL Where else is there? < The Troll works overtime. I am in MAINE. Hick-town U.S.A.It depends on where you're at. I'm going to guess... Sweden?
If anything. I'm curious to know what you celebrate in terms of the holiday season. I'm celebrating Christmas, and probably will go to a non-denominational church service on Christmas Eve. Then, gift giving and mayhem will begin on Christmas day.
When I was an atheist, I still did the gift giving thing. And the mayhem thing.
What is your faith, and how do you celebrate it? If you're an atheist, do you partake in any celebrations within your family?
I think Jesus would be a lot more impressed if people were genuinely nice and kind to each other all year long than with the circus that the celebration of winter solstice has become, under the excuse of celebrating his birthday, that actually happened some other time. No one knows when and it doesn't really matter.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
We're going to midnight mass, and then afterword we open a bottle of Asti Spumante and listen to soft Christmas music with our fireplace on. Christmas day is then crazy as our three kids, eight grandkids, and a couple of friends come over for dinner.
The next day we're in rehab.
The next day we're in rehab.
Got that right. With our kids and grandkids we'll be eighteen for dinner.
GoodbyeDave
Well-Known Member
I shan't celebrate Christmas, as I only do the religious holidays of my own religion. Last Sunday was the annual festival of Poseidon, next Saturday is Heliogenna.
You're such a positive one, my dear friend.
I need to ask this same question on OS. Just to see if they conduct any rituals.
Whisky has always been too strong for me. Brandy however, I would join you then and cheers!
Oh, I'm positive. Positive that I have only so much tolerance for normies, and normies are what families are.
You can only stomach so many conversations about the weather, how much they've missed you (though haven't bothered to visit in years), and watch and laugh as they try to one-up each other with expensive and useless presents. I guess that last bit is the amusing part...
We might have the same family.Oh, I'm positive. Positive that I have only so much tolerance for normies, and normies are what families are.
You can only stomach so many conversations about the weather, how much they've missed you (though haven't bothered to visit in years), and watch and laugh as they try to one-up each other with expensive and useless presents. I guess that last bit is the amusing part...
I see my parents all the time, but I have cousins who come into town during the holidays and always act like they miss me. Meanwhile, they'll come to town and I'll find out about it after they're gone. It's like stfu with your fake bs. Oh, and merry Christmas? lol
I often wonder why humans like to collectively celebrate things in common at all. I can understand the celebration of a child's birth because this is what happened when Jesus was born. And as @Vee said, the Bible does not give a date, because birthdates were not important in Israel. This is because celebrating the anniversary of a child's birth was something Gentiles did and was associated with false religious practices. Israel was told not to imitate them or their spiritistic customs. (Deuteronomy 18:9-12)
That means that neither Jesus nor his family would have celebrated his birthday or anyone else's. I take that to mean that Jesus would not approve of the celebration of Christmas.....especially is this so because of the greed and crass commercialism that have overtaken a renamed non-Christian event. What people love about Christmas can be held any time of the year. It there a reason why not?
It was clearly not originally a Christian festival but actually borrowed from a festival in honor of two sun gods whose birth was observed on 25th December. The Roman Sol and the Persian Mithra.
The customs of Christmas are Northern Hemisphere, winter solstice customs, gathered from different religious sources, that have no significance to those who live in the Southern Hemisphere. We are in the middle of summer so the Christmas songs about sleigh bells and snow are a bit of a joke downunder.
What have decorated evergreen trees got to do with Jesus Christ?
If you read the account in Matthew ch 2 you will find some surprising things....firstly, the announcement of Jesus' birth was made by angels to Jewish shepherds, not to Babylonian astrologers who came to be known as the "three wise men". The Bible does not say how many "wise men" there were. Nor does it put them at the stable where Jesus was born.
Reading the account you will see that these astrologers saw a star that led them to search for the child born to be "King of the Jews". The star led them, not to Jesus but to a wicked king who did not take kindly to being told that a new king of the Jews had come into the world. Any future Kings would come from among his own sons, so he immediately hatched a plot to kill Jesus. All of the infants 2 years of age and under were murdered as a result. The king feigned interest in locating the child in order to pay homage to him as well, So he asked the magi to locate the infant and get back to him.
The star moved again, this time, leading them to the very house where Jesus then lived with his parents, probably about 2 years old by then. God warned the astrologers in a dream to go home by another way so as not to alert Herod. When he found out that he had been deceived, he sent his soldiers to do their dastardly deeds. If the star was from God, then that makes him responsible for the deaths of all those innocent children. The star that is featured on the top of many Christmas trees was not therefore sent by God, but by his enemy in an attempt to take God's Messiah out of the world before he got a chance to even grow up.
All that said, I could not in all conscience have anything to do with it.
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IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
I'm Jewish, but there are also some in my extended family that are Christians. We go the extra mile to support each other as a family than to be distant or antagonistic religiously. That is especially true at this time of year.
The big holiday for me is Chanukah. My synagogue has a yearly time for prayers followed by a feast which includes latkes and jelly donuts. Family members who are Christian always accompany me to this and we have a grand time. Also this year, my city had its very first Menorah lighting, and lots of different people showed up. This was probably because of the Pittsburgh shooting.
My extended family has a Christmas get together, usually the weekend before Christmas, and I go to that to be supportive. It is good to see everyone. There is a wide assortment of food, both healthy and not so healthy! The gift giving is really just for the kids, and is voluntary. The young adults put together skits and songs. Everyone shares what has happened to them over the last year. There is a white elephant game which is hysterical.
Christmas day, I obviously don't do anything religious; I don't even do the secular Christmas stuff. My son and his fiancee will be coming over. I'll be doing the "Jewish Christmas" stuff, which means Chinese food and a movie. It's nice because nothing is crowded. This year I'll be cooking the Chinese meal: a stir fry using a "chicken" substitute. We decided to go see Mary Poppins Returns.
The big holiday for me is Chanukah. My synagogue has a yearly time for prayers followed by a feast which includes latkes and jelly donuts. Family members who are Christian always accompany me to this and we have a grand time. Also this year, my city had its very first Menorah lighting, and lots of different people showed up. This was probably because of the Pittsburgh shooting.
My extended family has a Christmas get together, usually the weekend before Christmas, and I go to that to be supportive. It is good to see everyone. There is a wide assortment of food, both healthy and not so healthy!
The gift giving is really just for the kids, and is voluntary. The young adults put together skits and songs. Everyone shares what has happened to them over the last year. There is a white elephant game which is hysterical.Christmas day, I obviously don't do anything religious; I don't even do the secular Christmas stuff. My son and his fiancee will be coming over. I'll be doing the "Jewish Christmas" stuff, which means Chinese food and a movie. It's nice because nothing is crowded. This year I'll be cooking the Chinese meal: a stir fry using a "chicken" substitute. We decided to go see Mary Poppins Returns.
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arthra
Baha'i
I'm Baha'i and we have four days (five days in a "leap year") in late February called "Ayyam-i-Ha". We gather together and exchange gifts and enjoy fellowship over the four or five days.
"He enjoined upon His followers to devote these days to feasting, rejoicing, and charity."
(Compilations, NSA USA - Developing Distinctive Baha'i Communities)
Mathùinean
New Member
My family is Christian, so I celebrate a secular—for me at least—Christmas with them. My girlfriend is Wiccan, so I celebrate Wiccan Yule with her. Within my own tradition, An Tùiraidheachd, I celebrate Imbolg around the beginning of February with saining, sacrificing, feasting and drinking with family and friends.
Celebrations have a purpose and meant to be favors if people fulfill the covenant and pledge, but for me, like the household of the Prophet said, not a day of celebration there is but it has come a time of grief for them so for me as well.
I don't enjoy any holidays anymore. We celebrate as if we really care about what they signify when we don't. Their purpose was buried the day Hussain was killed and never revived even though his successors tried.
If a significant amount people come together and unite on the rope of God, I will celebrate the Eids, otherwise, they can't count me out, for they increase us in deception now, and the trickery of Iblis only increases through them.
I don't enjoy any holidays anymore. We celebrate as if we really care about what they signify when we don't. Their purpose was buried the day Hussain was killed and never revived even though his successors tried.
If a significant amount people come together and unite on the rope of God, I will celebrate the Eids, otherwise, they can't count me out, for they increase us in deception now, and the trickery of Iblis only increases through them.
IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
The Jewish High Holy Days are coming up in October (this year). We come into repentance not as individuals (which we do all year round) but as a people, the People of Israel.
We first have Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year of the Earth. On these two days God our almighty and fearsome King of the Universe decides who will live and who will die for the coming year, what our general fate will be -- but repentance, charity, and prayer will soften the severity of the decree. We pray for the sins of the whole world. We read of Abraham's call to sacrifice Isaac, and repeat what he says, Hineni, Here am I.
On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed.
How many will pass and how many will be created?
Who will live and who will die?
Who in their time, and who not their time?
Who by fire and who by water?
Who by sword and who by beast?
Who by hunger and who by thirst?
Who by earthquake and who by drowning?
Who by strangling and who by stoning?
Who will rest and who will wander?
Who will be safe and who will be torn?
Who will be calm and who will be tormented?
Who will become poor and who will get rich?
Who will be made humble and who will be raised up?
But teshuvah and tefillah and tzedakah (return and prayer and righteous acts)
deflect the evil of the decree.
Then on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the merciful God Our Father forgives the sins of Israel. For 25 hours we go without all food and water (unless we have a medical condition such as pregnancy or diabetes or childhood in which as we are obligated not to fast). We spend practically all day in Synagogue. We remember that God casts our sins into the sea, and remembers them no more.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:12
You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:19
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Isaiah 1:18
We first have Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year of the Earth. On these two days God our almighty and fearsome King of the Universe decides who will live and who will die for the coming year, what our general fate will be -- but repentance, charity, and prayer will soften the severity of the decree. We pray for the sins of the whole world. We read of Abraham's call to sacrifice Isaac, and repeat what he says, Hineni, Here am I.
On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed.
How many will pass and how many will be created?
Who will live and who will die?
Who in their time, and who not their time?
Who by fire and who by water?
Who by sword and who by beast?
Who by hunger and who by thirst?
Who by earthquake and who by drowning?
Who by strangling and who by stoning?
Who will rest and who will wander?
Who will be safe and who will be torn?
Who will be calm and who will be tormented?
Who will become poor and who will get rich?
Who will be made humble and who will be raised up?
But teshuvah and tefillah and tzedakah (return and prayer and righteous acts)
deflect the evil of the decree.
Then on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the merciful God Our Father forgives the sins of Israel. For 25 hours we go without all food and water (unless we have a medical condition such as pregnancy or diabetes or childhood in which as we are obligated not to fast). We spend practically all day in Synagogue. We remember that God casts our sins into the sea, and remembers them no more.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:12
You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:19
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Isaiah 1:18
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