My daughter, who was a JW from infancy, LOVES the holidays and birthdays...I feel like she is making up for lost time!
How Many Enjoy Celebrating Holidays? Birthdays?
by minimus 32 Replies latest jw friends
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LivingTheDream
My wife has taught me to live life to the max including holidays: XMAS (including attending pagents at the church) Thanksgivings with all the family, July 4th BBQs with all my friends, Birthdays for everybody all the time, and so on.
I'm a holiday celebrating monster, living a second childhood with no regrets, feeling zero guilt.
It's my damn parents who stole that from me, who no longer even attend meetings themselves now... they're the ones that should feel the guilt.
I'm still waiting for the apology...
Brock
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rmt1
Totally love Christmas since its a convolution of multiple inputs, not least of which is celestial mechanics, and not least of which is the bitter huddling cold that invites you to take stock of what's good. I could not give a fig's leaf how arbitrarily made up it is. It's got music that no other holiday has. It's been diluted since secular forces have been taking religion out of schools. So being an ex-JW and trying to get in on the (scientifically invalid but emotionally) vibrant experience that was missed as a kid is practically a no-go. The holiday has been sucked dry by the money changers and politicians (I say this as an atheist).
Thanksgiving lost its nationalistic or exceptionalist meaning, so it's not anything particular now. Secular excuse for kicking back. Eh. There's a bit of national pride to be gleaned, but what is the nation to be proud about right now? It's becoming a police state.
Halloween is too much of a grab bag or catch-all of detritus. Has no meaning anymore (not that Thanksgiving or Christmas absolutely do, either). I watch a good many supernatural suspense/thriller movies to get my dose of chills. No chills in Halloween.
Birthdays are a great thing to do if you remember them. Real life / exiting young adulthood has a way of shelving them, since their significance is inversely proportional to quantity.
Easter is tainted from Memorial - Never got up a good sense of envy about rabbits and easter eggs, since the pagan roots were kind of un-provocatively obvious and not hotly contested. At least Christmas pagan roots had some subtleties, niceties, grist for the supposition that ancient Christians may or may not have given gifts on the 25th, stuff like that. Easter's just kind of you and Jesus and little cups of watercolor paint and mess. Not engaging, unless you perhaps have kids.
New Year's is of course a secular accomplishment to partake in. Doesn't have to be any spiritual dimension to it, no gratitude to god, no forgiveness, no promises, no resolutions. Just a general satisfaction of a year under the belt, whatever that brought you.
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wasblind
Here's a thought for those who may still feel guilty about celebrations
The first step is to recognize how special we are in that we are truly
One in a Million
Our mothers were born havin' the ability to produce millions of eggs
When she reached puberty about 400,000 of those eggs remained
In the course of each menstral cycle about a thousand egg follicles are lost
and only one follicle will actually mature into an egg which kicks starts ovulation
That means each and every poster here is truly One in a Million
And that is nothin' to feel guilty about
Celebrate
Out of a million chances we are the ones who get to experience
what it is to cry out loud, learn, love and laugh
And determine our individual course in this experience called life
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not bitter
I'm already getting excited about Christmas. Can't wait to get the tree and lights. Last year we had all the family over for a Christmas party and it was fab. Have decided it will be a regular thing at our each year.
We decorate the house for Halloween and I take my daughter trick or treating. She loves it.
Don't bother too much with mine or husbands birthday but we make a huge fuss over our wee girls.
I love the holidays and Christmas is my favourite. I just wish the dubs would come a knocking so they could see my lights and decorations. But they never do
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not bitter
Also love doing an Easter egg hunt in our garden as soon as we wake up.
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minimus
My friend who used to be an elder, remarried and promptly put big XMas lights around his house. He lives 1 minute away from the Kingdom Hall. Ballzy! You gotta love it!
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rmt1
I completed a task to obtain sub-second timing accuracy in my code to reduce Hubble spectra of Hot Jupiters, and that spells Christmas. So I got my little fake plastic Christmas tree here on my desk, with three strings of AA powered LED lights. One string is rainbow, one is white, one is purple, the wife's favorite color, and certainly a color of Christmas I do not recall from childhood in late 70s / early 80s. Also has a lapel pin of that angry ice cream sandwhich meme guy. Used to have Lego keychain guys. Cats love to eat it. As I speak, it clearly needs new batteries. But I like the feeling of slow-burning embers...
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truthsetsonefree
While I can easily forget them, my birthday just passed and we didn't do much, I enjoy them quite a bit. Particularly now since my second wife and family were never JWs.
Isaac
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KWJoe
I enjoy celebrating birthdays and holidays. My co-workers found out that I had never celebrated holidays or birthdays during childhood. When my next birthday came around, they surprised me with a party. Included in my presents were play doh, silly putty, a slinky, a fire truck and a GI Joe. It was the best 50th birthday a guy could have.