Should we be celebrating Christmas?

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

I never ever understood why more Christians didn't rebel against the whole idea of Christmas or Easter, given the pagan nature of the holidays.

But since I am pagan, I love seeing the decor! At the end of the day, more and more people are making the holiday a personal one as society keeps peeling away from religion.

The Puritans outlawed it. It's interesting that they managed to keep it down as long as they did. When Americans banned Christmas When people are doing well, lofty values are easy to maintain. The hard times, like Puritan times, make the comfort of the old ways all that more appealing.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

Eh, I like the aesthetic and consumerism has its charm. I'm hindu and my christian family is anti-fake holiday so it doesn't have a huge place in my home. I would even go as far as saying I'm the most festive person in my household and I don't even celebrate it.

Has your family always been anti-holiday?

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

I like to think that a lot of us are realizing that most of the dogma that's cropped up around various denominations actually has very little to do with the whole basis of our faith as I understand it. Which is essentially that we love God and love others as we love ourselves. We were never meant to sit in judgement of our fellows, but to show them love and compassion. To show justice with mercy, forgiveness. Nobody's perfect and we all make mistakes, and are human. There's so much to learn and discover in this life and I'm driven to learn and understand as much as I can. To qoute a cliche I believe that's part of why I was born. I totally agree that there's nothing quite so terrible as willful ignorance, I believe that pretty much every atrocity through history is rooted in ignorance. I guess everyone has something, but I think for the most part people try to rise above it. But nobody's perfect. This is just one flawed person's opinion, offered with respect to different ones.

Anyone who puts on airs about their faith, the I-got-my-free-pass-to-heaven-cause-I'm-better type crap, shouldn't be surprised when I want to have a conversation about it. Not them preaching condescendingly to me, but answering some questions. "I don't know. I don't actually read the bible" would be just fine.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

This is why the season of Advent exists.

I disagree with the Jehovah Witness viewpoint that all holidays are evil, though that's their right to do as they wish...but i disagree because Jewish holidays, seasons, feasts and fasts exist, they're physical reminders of our connection as humans to God and the spiritual realm.

But yes I think Advent should be observed before Christmas just like Lent is observed before Easter, to avoid over-focus on consumer aspects, emotional exhaustion, spiritual emptiness and binges that result from the secular consumer pre-Christmas season. The twelve days of Christmas are actually from Christmas day until the first week of January.

I think giving and charitable acts should be encouraged instead of shopping and competitive light displays, and I have personally observed Christmas Eve for a lot of my adult life by going to candle light services. In my childhood I was in Christmas pageants and we had a family gathering on every Christmas eve, plus you know me and my sisters read from the Bible and we had a nativity, and I think that sort of thing is common among Southern conservative protestants, and I think it's fine, but as an adult I gravitated to Catholicism and chose Lutheranism, because I think priests should marry and all Christians should be welcome at the communion table, that telling people taking communion without confession is mortal sin is really cruel. ..but what attracted me about Catholics and therfore Lutherans is the observation of Advent and Lent (as well as the level of education encouraged among members of the church being much higher and the solemnity and aesthetic that actually stems from Jewish temples, and isn't as pagan as evangelicals try to say it is, Glory to God in the Highest can include creative talents, beauty and tbh, I think when churches were more glorious that it kept development in general to a certain standard, unlike the cheap ugly industrial buildings that surround us in strip malls, suburbs and yes some protestant churches ).

Sorry if that's a longer and more convuluted answer than you wanted, but yes we should celebrate Christmas just not the shopping mall version.

Maybe you've got the right idea here. I have felt spiritual emptiness around this time of year, but my family didn't celebrate the way yours did. Mostly it was just a Christmas tree and presents. I might be able to do something better, rather than calling it off completely. Thanks Thalassa.

Why do you think Lutherans are more educated? And what would cause them to be?

 

[Merced]

Has your family always been anti-holiday?

Yep. My ESFP 6w5 mom moreso than my ISFP 3w4 dad. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day, St Patrick's Day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, Mother's/Father's Day Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. While I respect this want to stick with the morals, it's simply no fun! Boring, boring, boring! My parents reluctantly let me participate in holidays though. I appreciate that freedom.

 

[The Cat]

I never ever understood why more Christians didn't rebel against the whole idea of Christmas or Easter, given the pagan nature of the holidays.

But since I am pagan, I love seeing the decor! At the end of the day, more and more people are making the holiday a personal one as society keeps peeling away from religion.

I love the intimacy that comes from having a more personal relationship with spirituality than the old mantra that seemed so present growing up which essentially came down to shut up and color. Looking deeper on my own has given me a different outlook that I cherish tbh.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

[MENTION=17131]Chanaynay[/MENTION] Why must you defile the thread with Mariah Carey? Can't we have one thing on TypoC that is good and pure? Isn't this illegal, to do that to a nice thread?

 

[Mole]

Christmas is part of the Christian liturgy that gives meaning to each day of the year.

Unfortunately the Christian liturgy has become meaningless for many of us, and as nature abhors a vacuum, the Christian yearly liturgy has been replaced by the yearly sports' liturgy.

And don't sneer at the sports' liturgy for in the 19th century it gave Oz its first taste of nationalism.

And today the sport's liturgy takes the place of the Christian liturgy, and gives meaning to each season of the year, and meaning to each week, as the liturgy of sports' competitions rolls on.

Some may feel, as the rich Christian liturgy rolls off into the past, to be replaced by the sports' liturgy on TV, that we have become impoverished.

 

[HongDou]

[MENTION=17131]Chanaynay[/MENTION] Why must you defile the thread with Mariah Carey? Can't we have one thing on TypoC that is good and pure? Isn't this illegal, to do that to a nice thread?

Didn't you have Britney Spears as your icon for the past year...

 

[Smilephantomhive]

We get it! You love Mariah Carey.

That is one of the few Christmas songs that I actually like to listen to though.

 

[HongDou]

We get it! You love Mariah Carey.

What's there to get...like me stanning isn't a joke lmao there's no point I'm trying to prove out here

 

[Virtual ghost]

This thread thread reminds me of stories when celebrating Christmas was basically illegal in my country and Christmas tree was sometimes treated in the same way as heroin. My grandparents even smuggled some of the Christmas tree decorations into the country. Actually once they almost got arrested for the Christmas tree thing but it turned out that the cop was just "whatever" type of person or covered-up Christian.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Life Day vs Christmas

 

[Mad Hatter]

As a kid, Christmas to me was the best thing ever. From my mid-teens to my mid-twenties, I was like "meh, who needs all that, it's so fake anyway." I think that's true of many people I know - liking it as a kid, with all the presents and all, to being either indifferent or even sometimes hostile to it in early adulthood.

As I grew even older (and saw my family less regularly, and presents became much less important), I learned to appreciate the social aspect of it much more, and now I think again that it's really something to look forward to, and that I intend to celebrate it in the actual sense of the word. And even though I don't claim to have, let alone pratcise, a belief, I don't think that to celebrate Christmas for such a person is fake either because such a large part of the ritual is form and not inherently or essentially Christian (culturally speaking I'm protestant, so it's all about the inner attitude anyway!), and because I consider the spirit of Christmas as something universal which I can get behind easily. It's the other parts of religion (and of Christianity) I find less appealing.

As to whether one 'should', I'm not one to make any such suggestion one way or the other.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

This thread thread reminds me of stories when celebrating Christmas was basically illegal in my country and Christmas tree was sometimes treated in the same way as heroin. My grandparents even smuggled some of the Christmas tree decorations into the country. Actually once they almost got arrested for the Christmas tree thing but it turned out that the cop was just "whatever" type of person or covered-up Christian.

Your relatives probably had their mouths hung open, squinting at the sun, with their fingers pointed to the sky in astonishment. In garbled speech, they told the cop that there was a yellow ball in the sky. He just didn't want to deal with your family any more. Punishment would be a waste everyone's time.

So you think a Christmas tree is Christian huh?

 

[Virtual ghost]

Your relatives probably had their mouths hung open, squinting at the sun, with their fingers pointed to the sky in astonishment. In garbled speech, they told the cop that there was a yellow ball in the sky. He just didn't want to deal with your family any more. Punishment would be a waste everyone's time.

So you think a Christmas tree is Christian huh?

The point is not the origin of Christmas tree. (origin is probably pagan or something like that I suppose)

I am simply playing with apsurd situation.

 

[Thalassa]

Maybe you've got the right idea here. I have felt spiritual emptiness around this time of year, but my family didn't celebrate the way yours did. Mostly it was just a Christmas tree and presents. I might be able to do something better, rather than calling it off completely. Thanks Thalassa.

Why do you think Lutherans are more educated? And what would cause them to be?

Because they actually value education instead of telling people liberal education is of the devil and have a school system similar to Catholics. These schools tend to hold students to a higher standard than public schools and they still respect Biblical hermaneutics, instead of literalism.

This springs from the Jewish respect for learning. I find fundamentalist Christian willfull ignorance historically baffling in terms of religion. ..however, in terms of them being descendants of cults and criminals pushed out of their own countries for extremism and bizarre behavior, it historically makes more sense.

 

[Mole]

Longing

Christmas is the Christ Mass, a celebration of the Incarnation.

The Incarnation is stellar theology, where God and humanity become one.

Indeed the oneness of God and humanity is the aim of all mystical practice.

Christmas is the icon, the symbol, the story, of our deepest religious longings. As we ourselves long to be incarnated, just as God longed to be incarnated as a vulnerable baby in Bethlehem. Both God and humanity long for each other.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

Because they actually value education instead of telling people liberal education is of the devil and have a school system similar to Catholics. These schools tend to hold students to a higher standard than public schools and they still respect Biblical hermaneutics, instead of literalism.

This springs from the Jewish respect for learning. I find fundamentalist Christian willfull ignorance historically baffling in terms of religion. ..however, in terms of them being descendants of cults and criminals pushed out of their own countries for extremism and bizarre behavior, it historically makes more sense.

Well, you might like the people of Wisconsin. Lots of Lutherans up here. My mom and SO grew up in the Lutheran faith, so I'm probably pretty comfortable with them. I'd been in Wisconsin for a few years before meeting a Pentacostal. It was a jarring experience. I screamed inside every time I talked to him. To be fair to Pentacostals, he was probably more wild and extroverted than the the typical Pentacostal.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

The point is not the origin of Christmas tree. (origin is probably pagan or something like that I suppose)

I am simply playing with apsurd situation.

2016 Spode Holiday Newness & Collectibles - Serveware - Dining & Entertaining - Macy's

Look at this. Santa is at the top of that Christmas tree, where the star is supposed to be. Why? Because Santa=Satan and he needs to be above you so you can worship him.