we always had turkey and friends over on thanksgiving. no birthdays though. i still don't know my familys birthday dates. no easter..... but we got a new dress for the memorial!
Did You Ever Celebrate Birthdays Or Holidays As A Witness?
by minimus 28 Replies latest jw friends
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Big Tex
Yeah I think Thanksgiving is a pretty standard holiday celebration, as well as wedding anniversaries. Although I always thought it was pretty stupid that it was "up to your conscience" (read: okay) to celebrate a wedding anniversary but "followers of the true God" (read: bad and not okay) to celebrate a birthday.
I'll never forget the sisters (just a couple of months ago) who told my son that his celebrating his birthday was demonic. She said that just after she had let her son watch Gremlins. Naturally she didn't see the irony in that . . . . .
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berylblue
My children still got Christmas and birthdays as their father and his family were not JWs.
I was very glad for that.
I myself used to sit at home alone on Christmas. I finally did start going to my family's Christmas dinners, but left the room when the presents were given out. I did not feel bad about doing that. If there is only one time a year one can see one's family, how is it wrong to do so? Of course, I was told that I just should make the sacrifice and that Jehovah would make up for the fact that I was not going to see my loved ones.
Rosemarie
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DJ
We had and still have "family get-togethers". Just ignore the gifts, it's ok because they're not wrapped. Turkey has to be near Thanksgiving, preferably not on the day. Christmas is a funny one because my sister's husband is not a jw and he goes back to Rome (where he's from) to celebrate with his family. The elders supposedly tell my sister that it is ok if she goes with him because he is head of the family BUT if he wants her to go any other time of the year she is allowed to refuse. ????hello? My mom calls me on my birthday and always says the same thing verbatim, "I'm thankful to Jehovah for giving you to me ____ years ago." Gifts usually find their way into my hands w/o the wrap......What is it exactly about wrapping paper ? Would it be an admission of guilt? It is a life of denial.
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blondie
Celebrating Christmas by going to grandparents house on Christmas Eve to pick up presents.
Celebrating Christmas by going to business Christmas parties of unbelieving parent.
Celebrating Christmas by going to the homes of "worldly" friends on Christmas Day.
Celebrating Thanksgiving by having turkey on that Thursday and having a family party on the Saturday following.
Celebrating the 4th of July by watching the fireworks from a hillside by the KH.
Celebrating birthdays by picking a date out of a hat (other than your real birthdate) and celebrating it then calling it your Special Day.
Celebrating Easter by hiding colored eggs the Sunday after Easter and calling it Hide and Seek. (and the Easter candy was half price).
My family also went to the birthdays of older "worldly" relatives and never saw the hypocrisy of it. "They are old and won't understand and will be hurt" was the explanation.
Hypocrisy is alive and healthy among JWs.
Blondie
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minimus
You weren't ever celebrating anything.
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embalmed
My family celebrated everything the first few years my mum was a Jehovah's Witness. Or at least studying with them. It's an indistinguishable line really. But then we sort of dropped Halloween one year. And then Easter. And then Christmas. And then 4th of July. We kept celebrating my sister's and my birthdays for a few years longer; my 10th birthday was my last "real" party. We still went out to dinner on our birthday's though at a restaurant of our choice. We didn't have real Thanksgiving dinners, but we went out to restaurants then too and had turkey anyways. We didn't watch fireworks on 4th of July though. Damn. But I really do think most, if not all, JWs secretly [or not] celebrate Thanksgiving.
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LDH
Not a thing. Ever.
On our birthdays we were likely to get a good natured "spanking' --one swat for each year through about the age of twelve.
Other than that, NOTHING.
Once my mom was in the hospital during Thanksgiving and an elder and his wife invited us over for dinner. Us kids were blown away that it was a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Of course, it wasn't called that. We were very nearly stumbled, till my father explained that "Turkey and other Thanksgiving stuff was a bargain during this time of year."
Lisa
Bought a fresh ten-pounder last week for $8.99 and put it on the rotisserie, Class
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LDH
Not a thing. Ever.
On our birthdays we were likely to get a good natured "spanking' --one swat for each year through about the age of twelve.
Other than that, NOTHING.
Once my mom was in the hospital during Thanksgiving and an elder and his wife invited us over for dinner. Us kids were blown away that it was a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Of course, it wasn't called that. We were very nearly stumbled, till my father explained that "Turkey and other Thanksgiving stuff was a bargain during this time of year."
Lisa
Bought a fresh ten-pounder last week for $8.99 and put it on the rotisserie, Class
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Room 215
The whole JW prohibition against such innocuous holidays like Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Thanksgiving, Birthdays, etc. is no more than a cheap ploy to draw attention to themselves as ``different and apart' from the rest of humanity, as case of being different simply for its own sake. The argumentation is specious and inconsistent in the extreme, often confusing rather than clarifying. Nor does it help when they the rather reasonable position they espouse on Hawaain luaus (see the Questions from Readers April 8 '03 Awake!), can clearly be applied to any or all of the above special days, i.e., that any possible religious connotations any of these might have had has long been forgotten.
So, rather than ``take arms against a sea of trouble," many dubs simply come to terms individually on such matters and make some discreet observance. Many see the prohibitions as a ploy to suppress any inclination to make individuals feel special and important; that's only reserved for the ``Faithless and Indiscreet Slave!'