Hello everyone,
OK, I'm fairly new here and to the whole mess that is the realm of JWs and the WTS, introduced to this odd world because I'm dating an inactive JW (that's a whole other ball of wax, check out my other topic on this - http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/20/101985/1.ashx), but I've been doing some research and there's one question that's been really bugging me.
JWs don't celebrate Christmas, I think we all get that. They say that Christmas is pagan and therefore Satanic and all of that, so they've banned the celebration of Christmas (among other Christian holidays). I figured that it had been like this since the beginning of the WTS back in the 1870s, but I've found references to articles published in the Watchtower magazines in the early part of the 20th century that state that Christmas is a good time of year, that giving and charity and all of these things that come with the Christmas season are good and that celebrating Christmas is a good thing. I don't have the URLs for my sources at the moment, I have them bookmarked on my computer, so I'll have to dig them out, but when I find the right links, I'll update this post with them. In the meantime, one reference to the Watchtower magazine that I've found states that:
"Judge Rutherford, the Watchtower president at the time, was very excited about his "numerous Christmas presents " " (Watchtower - Jan. 15, 1919, P. 31) - http://www.letusreason.org/JW10.htm
My question is, who decided that Christmas is evil, why did they decide this and when did the WTS renounce Christmas?? Is there anyone out there who can at least partly answer these questions or maybe steer me in the direction of some answers??
Thanks!!
-Becka :)