by BR25 24 Replies latest jw friends
I am a former JW, but I still believe what they do about the holidays? I have already talked about origins and all that stuff so I wanted to ask something without bringing up scriptual or historical backgrounds for a change.
My question is (whatever your beliefs may be) what % of people who celebrate christmas, if you took the presents out of christmas would still acknowledge christmas as much as they do now? NOTE: as much. Be honest. I will go with 10-15 percent.
As an adult, I don't GET presents anymore...WHAH! But, I still celebrate because I believe in the birth of Christ and recongnizing that day as a day of celebration.
The presents are merely a cultural aspect of the holiday. Even without the gifts, I'd still celebrate with family and those I love.
I love Christmas, not because of its Christian associations, but for the pagan ones. My friends and I don't exchange much in the way of gifts, but we like to make fruitcakes for everyone we know and have a solstice party and hang wreaths on the door and lights around the outside of the house. I don't really know anyone who goes in much for gifts, except for people with kids.
I probably wouldn't celebrate, I doubt alot of people would. But there should be some day during the year where people give gifts to each other. One day of the year where nearly everyone is happy to spend time with relatives and be generous in giving gifts. That's my thoughts, it's pagan... yeah so what... alot of stuff has pagan origins which people believe in.
I enjoy Christmas, not just for the presents but for the time off work, and opportunity to spend time with my loved ones. It would, however, probably be less of a celebration for me without the gift giving.
I'm an atheist, so the idea of celebrating Jesus birth is not on my list of priorities.
My parents became JW's when I was 4 years old, and I left it when I was 50! That's a long time without holidays. One by one, our 4 children left the religion too, and they had families, and didn't want to deprive their children of the good times, or subject them to the isolation at school of not celebrating.
So after a year or two, we joined in and love it! We do Christmas very big, and most years I only buy gifts for the grandchildren (9 of them now) and a friend or two. I love the tree, decorating it, and looking at it. Lights on the house, baking, the smells, and the energy at the Malls. I truly see now that giving is better than receiving. It is so much fun and feels so good.
For us, it's not about Jesus' birth.........he was just a man in our opinion, so it's all about Santa Claus and snowmen, gingerbread people and reindeer. Love it, love it.
It takes time to deprogram all the years of "you have to look at the pagan origins" until you realize one day that that is just crap.
Christmas is good for commerce but there is no reason to focus on its pagan roots and ignore the fact that it is a holiday totally within Christianity focusing on the birth of Jesus. Exchanging gifts is not a bad idea but I think most older people don't really care about receiving gifts or not.
For me (never a JW), Christmas is about music, family, cooking, and eating together. There are very few gifts exchanged.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/132247/1.ashx
A couple Christmases ago, my daughter nearly had a meltdown trying to match obligations around gift-giving. She was considering cancelling Christmas as she simply could not afford it. I'd spent enough time with you kind folks to understand that it is a devastating loss to simply erase the tradition, so I had a long talk with her about what Christmas really means. I encouraged her to go back to her roots. What made Christmas special to her? Her favorite memories were of our little family sitting around the kitchen table, making home-made Christmas cards. She recovered her spirit, and that year everyone got little home-made crafty gifts that she and my granddaughter made together.
Last year I invested in Chrisco hampers. I paid a small stipend every month to have Christmas arrive in a box. It took out the financial sting, and opening that box was a huge treat! We're doing it again this year.
I beleive no matter what religion you are from including jws it is disrespectful to celebrate things that dont have a great beginning. But men have their opinions and if thats what they think thats what it is. I am sorta of a hypocrit on this subject though. I have celebrated it the last few years, and yeah it is a blast, but in the back of my mind I know it is disrespectful no matter what religion you are from. I know there is many arguments against jws on here, but no matter the arguments, and how fun something is you gotta know its meaning.
Its just alot of subjects on here dont make any sense. Like people responded to this topic and said that they dont care about how these things started they will celebrate it anyway. doesnt make much sense, and also these same people are looking up how some of jws beliefs started, and then everyone supports it. Whats the difference.
Also, I know the kids enjoy holidays, but how can you not take the beginnging of christmas and especially halloween into consideration. Do us humans not get tested, or from what people tell me you pray to be saved and everything is automatically ok.
Why didnt a wise christian along the way change the day of celebration if it is something that it is to praise jesus. Why because people accept it as it is, and you cant prove a man wrong. To me no matter what religion you support it seems like most of the celebrations are a slap in the face and not praising. Sure men think nothing wrong of it because it brings families together, and everyone has a good time, but what do you think god thinks of it when it is celebrated from bad rituals and false gods. Why not another day????
I honestly don't think that God sweats that kinda stuff. I suspect He's a little bigger than that. Do you really think He runs to the Gregorian calendar anyhow?
Most things in life don't have a "great beginning", from religion to lipstick (think: animal testing). Even going to the Gym has its roots in the Greek games which were inspired by exceeding at warfare. Computers and the Internet were originally funded by the military, and what was one of the first uses of air travel? Warfare.
If you genuinely believe you should refrain from having anything to do with things that have had a not-so "great beginning" you'd be as well heading to a hermitage and becoming a monk. Oops - you probaly think that has pagan origins, too, huh?
