by MadApostate 17 Replies latest jw friends
The holidays, they say, are not mentioned in the Bible and are not grounded in Christianity. People celebrate the holidays, they say, more out of a sense of tradition and sentimentality than to honor Jehovah, or God. (quote)
So whats wrong tradition and sentimental feelings?
Free
I remember seeing a picture on the internet a year or so ago of a WT Christmas celebration from back in the days when Christmas was still celebrated.
Can anyone tell me where I could find that picture again?
Thanks!
Marjorie
G'day Mad,
The article would have been prepared by a reporter with the Post-Dispatch whose editor contacted the Society's Home Office. Those Witnesses selected to be interviewed were selected by the City Overseer. This type of article is quite normal at this time of year when newspapers want to provide information on how some in the community celebrate Xmas (or in this case, don't celebrate it).
I don't see we can draw any inference about the religious background of the journalist. After all, at this time of year, they just want to write 'feel good' type articles.
Cheers,
Ozzie
"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Anonymous
It was interesting to see the "standard phrases" that make out that everyone in "the world " is really having a lousy time at Christmas and they just do it out of formalism ,not being able to refuse.
Thats what the J Ws are taught, and if ,like a lot of us , you were brought up in it then you believe that to be true.
Since I have been dealing with real people I cannot see that that has been the case.
Castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually - Jimi Hendrix.
FreeFallin:
Exactly. What IS wrong with the Christmas tradition? and sentimental feelings? As someone said earlier, it seems that the GB just wants to enforce an artificial difference, an "us/them" mentality.
So Christmas isn't mentioned in the Bible: yeah, well, neither is Brooklyn, but they seem to own a little bit of land there. Are they being idolatrous?! I think Christmas is very valuable because it briefly, sort of, directs people to think about Jesus.
Not grounded in Christianity?? The only holiday more central to Christianity than Christ's birth is Easter: Christ's atoning death and resurrection. But then they don't acknowledge the atonement of his death (the entire NT notwithstanding, e.g., Acts 4:12) or a literal resurrection (in spite of his deliberate actions to prove that he had been bodily resurrected: "Touch me! Look at this wound! .. Let's have some of that fish you just caught. Let's go for a walk to all the way to Emmaus.").
I had a visit from a JW during Christmas of 2000. A very sincere and personable individual, I must say, but still bent on the "Christmas is pagan" thing. I pointed out that every single day of the week is named after a pagan object of worship (Saturn, Sun and Moon; Tiu, Woden, Thor and Freya (Norse gods)). But the GB has never forbidden JWs to use the names of these days, or supplied alternatives. I said this not to shame or antagonize him but to suggest that (a) the GB have absolutely no business exerting the control that they do, and (b) it isn't pagan if you don't INTEND it that way. I personally am not doing pagan worship when I decorate a tree with my wife and we give our kids presents.
Right on Free. Be free, indeed! -- John 8:36.
Dins:
It broke my heart to imagine you alone and crying on Christmas Eve as a child. Since my little guys were born, the idea of a child's lonely suffering has become extremely painful to me. Not that they suffer in particular, just that being a parent will do that to you. You are totally right on when you learn from these experiences and deliberately give your children the opposite.
I can imagine the Lord saying to all hurting ex-JWs: Come to me and I will give you rest ... I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten (Matthew 11:28; Joel 2:25). Aaaa-men.
ANOTHER ARTICLE:
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Santa's little helpers
Jason Bergreen
Dec 24 - By Jason Bergreen staff writer
Santa Claus isn't the only person delivering gifts in Cache Valley this year. A team of agents from ERA Realty delivered thousands of dollars in food and gifts to six needy families Dec. 18.
This is the seventh year the Logan-based real estate firm has assisted Mr. Claus.
"We decided we would not have a party for Christmas," ERA Realty owner Kathleen Burnett said. "We would instead take money and we'd save it all year round. Then what we'd do is get a hold of the different people in town. We usually call the food bank and the people that deliver meals on wheels. We talk to different pastors and churches in the area and we get a list of about eight to 10 people. Some years there are more than others. We adopt these people for the Christmas holiday. We kind of get an idea of what they need and what some of their situations are."
The gift boxes are stuffed full of hams, canned goods, fruits, cheese trays, gloves, blankets, lotions and other goods.
"It's all brand new," Burnett said. "There's nothing used. If it's blankets, it's a brand new blanket. If it's slippers or robes, it's brand new. Groceries are naturally brand new."
The gifts are delivered mostly to the elderly and needy families.
"We have four committees," Burnett said. "The wrapping committee, the delivery committee, the committee to find the families and the shopping committee. They start working on this the first of November."
The families chosen to receive gifts this year live in different parts of the valley, not just Logan. The families are from Preston, Providence, Paradise, Logan and Hyde Park.
"We do it for people that need it," Burnett said. "If five need it then that's what we do. If 10 need it then that's what we do. Heaven help us if we have 20."
Burnett told a funny story about one of last year's recipients.
"Ann (Vanderkuyl, a secretary) delivered last year," Burnett said. "They walked up to this door with this huge box and it had Christmas wrapping all around it. And the little lady answered the door and she said, 'Oh dear,' she said, 'I'm Jehovah's Witness, we don't celebrate Christmas.' And Ann says, 'If I take all the wrapping paper off would you accept it?' She said, 'Yes.' So they stood there and took the wrapping paper off and gave her a bunch of goodies."
The deliveries are a surprise for the recipients, Burnett said. Most people are shocked when the delivery committee shows up, some even cry.
"We get thank you notes when they figure out who we are," Burnett said. "Those are nice, but we don't do it for the thank you cards. We just want to wish you a Merry Christmas."
Bttt so folks will see that there is a second article posted above.
THIRD ARTICLE:
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No Noel: How holiday hoopla affects those who don't celebrate Christmas
Thursday, December 20, 2001
By Monica L. Haynes,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
On Tuesday, millions of children will rise at dawn, run to the Christmas tree and rip open their brightly wrapped presents.
Ten-year-old Kevyn Taylor of Castle Shannon won't be one of them. Kevyn is a Jehovah's Witness. While this religious sect believes in Jesus Christ, its followers do not celebrate Christmas.
Jacqueline Wolfert hasn't been decking the halls at her home, either. She's Jewish. Nor will you find Saim Chaudhry, 15, of Monroeville, hanging any tinsel for the occasion. He's Muslim.
With seemingly every department store, television program and radio station steeped in Christmas carols, roasted chestnuts and reruns of "Miracle on 34th Street," it's difficult to keep in mind that not everyone has visions of sugar plums, holiday dollar signs or mangers dancing in his head.
In the five-county Pittsburgh region there are approximately 10,000 Muslims, said Kadir Gunduz, director of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are 8,725 Asian Indians in the region. Many are Hindu. There are roughly 40,000 Jews in the region, said Sharon Stern, manager of community planning and director of human resources development at the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh.
Kevyn, a fourth-grade pupil at Myrtle Avenue Elementary in Castle Shannon, is quite confident when explaining his beliefs to schoolmates.
"I usually just say I'm a different religion, and my religion teaches us not to celebrate Christmas," Kevyn said.
He and his 14-year-old sister, Jamie, say they don't feel left out of all the traditional holiday activities at school.
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How Christmas got its start
Christmas was instituted in 354 as the Feast of the Nativity by the bishop of Rome.
While no one knows the exact date of Christ's birth, scholars agree it's not likely that he was born in December since the Bible states that shepherds were tending their sheep. It's more likely that he was born in September or October.
Religious scholars believe Dec. 25 was chosen to make it easier to convert the Romans, who already celebrated a festival on this date. The festival was called Saturnalia and honored Saturn, the god of agriculture. The Babylonians also held the Feast of the Son of Isis, Goddess of Nature, on Dec. 25.
Both festivals were marked by eating, drinking, merrymaking and giving gifts.
-- By Monica L. Haynes
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"When they do something Christmas-related, we just come home," says Jamie, a freshman at Keystone Oaks High School.
Most of her friends know about her religious beliefs so it's not a big deal anymore. "Nobody really asks me, [but] if they ask me if I want to come to a Christmas party or exchange gifts, I say, 'no.' They'll ask me why, and I'll explain I'm a Jehovah's Witness."
So is Sonja Dawson, who also lives in Castle Shannon. Asked whether she missed Christmas when she was younger, the 14-year-old replied, "Not really, because I knew that I was serving my God the way I learned to and the way that would please him."
There are a number of reasons Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate Christmas, said Suzanne Dawson, Sonja's mother.
"It's really out of our respect for Christ that we don't celebrate it," Dawson said. "So many of the customs used to celebrate Christmas don't come from a Christian origin. We try to honor him really all year round by trying to do our best to imitate him, have Christ-like qualities and apply the principles he taught."
There are those, however, who've been able to divide Christmas into two aspects -- religious and secular.
That's why some Hindu families don't feel out of place participating in certain aspects of Christmas, said C.S. Parthasarathy, a Hindu who lives in Monroeville.
"Our children do celebrate, if not in a religious way in a social way," he said. That includes exchanging gifts and getting together with family and friends since almost all are off from work and school. "In India we won't do it. Here we don't want to be left out."
Even though he is Muslim, Shaheryar Hafeez said as a child he believed in Santa Claus "because everybody else did."
The 19-year-old University of Pittsburgh student said he never felt like an outsider at Christmas because most of the time schools would promote the holiday season in general.
"I think Christmas as a holiday has gotten more commercial," Hafeez said. "It's closer to a holiday and further away from a religious holiday."
For that reason, Hafeez says he doesn't have a problem with his Catholic roommate putting up a Christmas tree in their room.
Jacqueline Wolfert, 17, recalls helping her baby sitter decorate a Christmas tree when she was around 9 years old. Her parents never mentioned it at the time, but looking back on it, Jacqueline said, "I don't think they felt completely comfortable with that." However, they knew, she said, that Judaism was the religion she would stay with.
The Shady Side Academy senior believes that attending a school with such a diverse population makes the students more open to learning about other religions and cultures. That doesn't mean you lose your own religion, she said.
She has friends who are Hindu, Muslim and Christian, as well as Jewish. "Just to get to know and understand your friends, you have to understand their traditions, their background and where they come from," Jacqueline said.
Even though Hanukkah is celebrated about the same time as Christmas and presents are given, it's not as big a holiday, she said.
"Christmas Eve would roll around, and my friends couldn't come out and play," Jacqueline said, referring to her younger years.
"Even though you had your own holiday, you wished you could take part. Even now, I feel that sometimes that would be a really cool thing, going to church and that stuff."
Talk of holiday gift-giving and merriment remind Saim Chaudhry of Eid ul-Fitr, a Muslim holiday held at this time of the year. Eid celebrates the end of Ramadan, a month of fasting and prayer. During Eid, Muslims hold communal prayers followed by socializing, eating and giving gifts. Saim, a sophomore at Shady Side Academy, said all the talk about Christmas festivities has never bothered him. In fact, it just heightened his anticipation of Eid.
"I knew I would get my time and have my presents at my day," he said.
