As a witness did you secretly celebrate holidays? (page 2)

wednesday

yes. I was always so happy at xmas time, i would of course not put up a tree, but i would buy gifts (not wrapped) and spend lots of money. We always watched "It's a wonderful life" and had egg Nog. We watched all the xmas movies on that time (now includes The Grinch"") of the year. I walked around singing xmas songs. I have a tradition . We watch "a christmas Tuna". those of u in texas may have heard of these guys who do the Tuna series.

For New years, we either go out, or stay up and watch the parties on TV. We have special food and overdrink. New yrs day we either watch a "trech-thon" or a "Zoneathon".

Easter, we watch all the tv movies about jesus. july 4 we have a barbeque memorial day we go out of town. Thanksgiving we have turkey,. We never did birthdays or mothers day..Why i do not know-guess we thought we should draw the line somehere. Oh halloween we watch all the scary movies. We never did the parties. Never had any friends who did.

jws

My parents took us to see fireworks every July 4th when we were kids. But, just to see the fireworks. We weren't supposed to feel patriotic or anything. And I don't think there was a problem with that at the hall because other kids at the hall went too. And I was never told not to tell anybody I had gone.

And, we usually had a turkey on or around Thanksgiving, usually with my sister over and her family over. Because turkey was cheap (not that other meat wasn't, but for variety at a bargain), and we had the day off. What spoiled it was having to go to meeting that night.

Other than that, never really missed birthdays, but other worldly friends felt sorry for me and my brother and started celebrating them for us. We didn't complain.

Costumes and Halloween looked fun. We secretly bought costumes to go to bars all dressed up or party down State St. in Madison Wisconsin. It was a blast.

We also got involved in x-mas exchanges at work.

Depending on the moment, we sometimes felt guilty. And sometimes we participated in a way so as not to damage the conscience too much. Like justifying Halloween as not celebrating it, just doing a costume thing. OK, so our conscience was clear over Halloween, never mind all the drinking and wild behavior.

gumby

I never did but I always wondered why it was OK to view them the way we did.

We would go to 4th of July fireworks, drive the streets during Christmas and enjoy the decorations.

To a dub.....that should be the same as the Israelites saying....."lets go take a trip over where the pagans live and enjoy all the Baals they have erected".( They were not to look upon what was unholy accept to tear them down.)

Gumby

c5

As a child, I would gaze out the car window on the way to the Hall and be mesmerized by all the Christmas lights! I remember feeling warm and cozy on the inside. I told no one ever, because I would have gotten in trouble for even thinking about liking a digusting pagan holiday.

Some of the witnesses in a bigger congregation from the one I was raised in would meet a a brother's house who lived near the place they had the fireworks for the 4th of July. I went one year and felt very guilty for participating, but reasoned it away that other Jw's were doing it so it must be border line ok.

Were any of you forbidden to eat Birthday cake at school? We were. I remember I had to be sent out of the class when someone had thier birthday so that I would not be participating by eating the cake. No wonder all my classmates thought I was weird. Talk about feeling left out and having it rubbed in royally. Then my brother (Gambler) revealed to me that he sometimes would eat the cake. Boy was I mad when I found out! Here I endured teasing and humiliation in the name of being a good witness, and he just didn't care and ate the cake and got away with it!

Cari Beth

run dont walk

No, I celebrated them out in the open, and really didn't care what anyone thought, never got conselled or questioned on it.

Prisca

We could sing "winter" songs, like "Frosty The Snowman." But if it mentioned Christ or Christmas, we were s*it outta luck.

"Winter" songs were out for me too, because Christmas here in Australia is during our summer, so ALL of those seasonal songs were out of bounds for me.

Were any of you forbidden to eat Birthday cake at school?

Oh yeah, actually I can't remember birthdays being celebrated in primary school (same as American elementary) either because the teachers didn't make it a class thing, or because I was sent out of the room when they did. I was invited to some birthday parties but I had to explain to my friends that I didn't celebrate birthdays. I'd feel bad when other friends would give them presents but I couldn't. Some would give me pressies or cards on my birthday, even though they knew I didn't celebrate them.

Recently through the "schoolfriends" web site I found an old friend, who was one of those that gave me birthday and Xmas pressies. I thanked her for being such a good friend and apologised for never giving her anything. She was really sweet about it, and said not to worry about it. The main thing is that we're friends again now.

Hapgood

My hubby, daughter and myself would get pretty lonely around holiday time. The congregation that we are in, pretty much everyone was related to everyone else (gotta watch who you marry), and they would all get together. So, most of times we were left out.

So, my family being "worldly" would celebrate all those pagan holidays, and of course we would go over to visit, you know just because we had the day off :-)

For Birthdays, we would just leave the room when it came to singing "Happy Birthday" , then come back and eat some cake.

Christmas we would arrive after they all unwrapped their gifts, would drink egg nog the whole bit, we did everything but the gifts. I loved driving around looking at all the decorations and lights. Watched the Christmas movies.

Went to 4th of July fireworks, had barbeque's. Always had Thanksgiving dinner with my family.

I was pretty lenient with my daughter in school, I let her sing the winter songs. With art projects in school, I said if something is "real" you can participate. For example if the teacher gave her a bunny or a Christmas tree, pumpkin, she could color it like it occurred in nature, but no Santa Clause. Her kindergarten class was featured in the local newspaper for their Thanksgiving celebration. So on the front page of the paper was a picture of my daughter participating in the celebration. There she was dressed up in a Thanksgiving costume that she had made in school, sitting at a table that the kids had decorated with turkeys and pumpkins, with their "feast" in front of them. Oops! None of the jws ever said anything to me about that.

I guess not growing up in the "truth", I really didn't understand the big deal the jws made concerning holidays.

Hapgood

stillajwexelder

yes - usaully go to my bosses birthday party -- and always used to go around to my mothers on christmas morning

blondie

There is an advantage being in a divided household. My father took us to the relatives and his friends for all the holidays and we had to go; can't disobey the head of the house. My mother's family just scheduled family dos accidentally on birthdays. We accepted birthday presents and Christmas presents; but never gave any back though (we didn't have the money since dad controlled the checkbook and was a cheapskate). I did the turkey thing at school and Valentine's cards (I made mine at school). Birthdays at school were no problem. The only reason we didn't celebrate at home was my dad would not spend the money. He preferred mooching at other people's houses. I routinely sang Christmas songs at the old folks home and the hospital.

Blondie

undercover

In school, it was hard to watch as everyone else celebrated and had fun. As an adult witness, I did go to a few "parties", even though we were not supposed to, but that was about as far as I went. Now that I'm inactive, I still got to the parties and dinners, but I don't celebrate much of the holidays as most people do. I like Halloween the best though and look forward to that one and the costume parties that workmates throw. Neighbors throw one hell of a July 4th party. That's fun. But as far as Thanksgiving and Xmas, I don't do anything for them. If I'm invited to the company party, I'll go. No tree, no gift buying. It does make life a little easier, seems like, not having to run around and buy tons of stuff for everybody and their brother and worrying about decorating and then cleaning up.

As a witness did you secretly celebrate holidays?

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