Saturday, 21 April 2012
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Christians and Holidays: Should Some Celebrations Be Avoided?
[This is reposted as part of our Best-Of Revelife Week. It was originally posted on September 26, 2010.]Various Christians of various stripes refrain from celebrating a variety of holidays, ostensibly on Christian grounds.
- Some Christians do not celebrate Halloween, because of its devilish imagery.
- Some Christians do not celebrate patriotic holidays such as Independence Day or Thanksgiving, because of the possibility of idolizing the nation-state. In particular, Thanksgiving can be seen as an alternative creation story, and a simulacrum of the communion table.
- Some Christians do not celebrate Valentine's Day, because of its glorifying a commercialized version of romance, and its origins in pagan Rome.
- Some Christians do not celebrate birthdays, because they see it as self-glorifying, and the only characters in the Bible who celebrate birthdays are negative examples like King Herod.
I'm sure this will surprise no one, but the only holidays I avoid celebrating are the patriotic ones. I do try to qualify my celebration of Christmas and Valentine's Day, which culturally speaking are celebrations of mass marketing and consumerism. I also tend to avoid announcing my birthday, but that's strictly because I don't like people making a big deal of it, and has nothing to do with theological considerations.
What do you think? Are there any holidays Christians might want to either avoid or qualify their participation in? Are there holidays Christians should especially get behind?
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- From: SirNickDon@xanga
- Name: Nick Don
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- About Me: I teach English as a second language for an online school based in Russia. I am working toward a Master's in Theology and working (very slowly) on writing my first book, an introduction to political theology.
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Comments (2)
For me...Any day that Celebrates G-d is a Good day. Any day that does not and glorifies evil should be avoided.
If you have anymore questions about this, in detail you should read the 14th Chapter of Romans.In short it says that everyone is accountable to G-d for their own actions. That you should not criticize someone for what they are doing, but to live at peace with them. What they do is between them and the Lord. And only G-d has a right to judge them.
The more I discover the Hebrew Roots of our Christian faith the more I am questioning a lot of holidays. In regards to the popular holidays, I just assumed that our parents celebrated them... their parents celebrated them and so on for centuries. It was all OK and innocent as long as our hearts were in the right place. And that maybe so.
What I really question is why did the early church, about 200-300 years after our Lord's death and resurrection... why did they just abolish all things Jewish? It really was a complete wipe out and removal of any trace of the Hebrew culture. Why aren't we celebrating/remembering Passover, the Day of Atonement and the holy days God ordained for ALL generations? It is almost as if too much got lumped in with "legalism" and the "old covenant" and maybe, just maybe we threw out too much.
On top of that... after it all got thrown out, a lot of pagan traditions got accepted in and given a Christian twist. At first I didn't want to believe that claim. I ignored it for years, clinging to "it is all about the heart and our hearts are focused correctly on Jesus now, so it is OK." But more and more research supports the other claims and I find myself asking, "What would God prefer?" Since God told us not to worship Him the way the pagans worship their gods, is all this really OK, or do I just want it to be OK because it would be too inconvenient and hard to do it any other way?
I know hearts are in the right place toward Jesus and all the old pagan reasons for doing things is LONG gone. But that doesn't mean it is what our Lord... who established and commanded certain feasts, would prefer it to be done.
Some might caution that any of the old feasts and holidays would take us back to legalism. But I beg to differ. I know of believers in Jesus who do follow these holy-days and feasts. They aren't legalistic about it at all. In fact they say that yes, Jesus fulfilled what we call the "old testament"... but they continue to focus on these holidays because it is a great reminder and celebration of everything Jesus fulfilled. It gives the complete picture and better understanding. And personally, I think they are on to something. Something (on the subject of holidays) that we long threw away and maybe shouldn't have.