When I was a in high school I had several friends who were home schooled. Many were very religious and didn't participate in Halloween. I went to a public school where Halloween was not only widely accepted, but we were all encouraged to dress up and participate. My friends strongly believed that Halloween's pagan roots made it not ok for Christians to be apart of. This opened up my curiosity. I wanted to know just exactly how bad this holiday was, so I began doing some research. What I found was quite surprising. While it's true Halloween does come from pagan roots there was once a time when the Catholic church tried to change the meaning of it's traditions to make it fit Christianity. Most protestant churches didn't easily accept "All Saints Day", but they did accept the other holidays that the Catholic church succeeded in changing the meanings of. The most significant being Easter and Christmas. My findings didn't stop me from recognizing Easter and Christmas. In fact it instead made Halloween an ok tradition for me seeing as all other Holidays also had Pagan roots.
We all know that not everyone is a Christian. Not everyone goes to church, and most certainly not all my friends and family are church going Christians. A couple years ago on Facebook I decided to post the status of "Happy Egg-Day" on Easter. Some of my more serious church going friends were outraged at my disrespect towards Jesus Christ, the church and Christianity claiming "It's called Resurrection Sunday!" I was amazed at how someone could so blindly, without question, follow a tradition and call it Holy. It led me to write a blog about it. Needless to say the very people who were so offended by my simple choice of words that Easter Sunday two years ago haven't spoken to me since.
Now we've come to the end of November when most people's thoughts turn towards Christmas and everything it stands for. For most professing Christians it's a time to focus on Jesus Christ's birth. After all being called "Christ-mass" this is clearly a biblical Holiday with clear instructions on how to celebrate. Social media is filled with posts and pictures encouraging those to think of Jesus and all he's done for us and making it clear that this is surely the reason for all of our traditions around this time of year. The actual message in the pictures and posts don't upset me really. It just brings back the memory of two years ago when a dear friend stopped talking to me simply because I didn't blindly follow the traditions of our culture and call them Christian or Biblical. In Matt. 15:9 Jesus says "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines and the commandments of men" Biblicaly Christmas nor Easter is not a command of God at all. It's simply a tradition of men. I'm not telling anyone not to celebrate whatever holidays or traditions that you feel the need to celebrate. The truth is just about all the traditions around the Holidays are skewed ideas with very little scriptures to back them up.
Now if you are still reading this please understand that this is in no way bashing the church or it's traditions. I'm not saying that celebrating these things are evil in anyway. I'm just trying to make aware that there is more truth to these traditions and hate seeing people so strongly preaching ideas that aren't completely accurate. Just as my friend did at Easter two years ago. Don't get angry at those who don't celebrate Christmas this time of year, or those who maybe celebrate different holidays with different traditions. I have up a Christmas tree and I may exchange a gift or two. I will feast, because I love turkey and ham! I do this though not in honor of Jesus, but because it's a tradition that I hold dear. Personally I feel a strong connection to the Bible and what it teaches. It's always been something I've kept fairly private as I feel spirituality is more a matter of the heart. Traditions are all in what you make them. There is nothing wrong with keeping Christ in your Christmas, but don't feel the need to throw him onto other people's holidays or lack of holidays as well. There is NOTHING dishonoring or disrespectful about saying "Happy Holidays" as opposed to saying "Merry Christmas." If anything I feel it shows more respect to your fellow Americans who are free to celebrate or not celebrate whichever holiday they choose.
Now we've come to the end of November when most people's thoughts turn towards Christmas and everything it stands for. For most professing Christians it's a time to focus on Jesus Christ's birth. After all being called "Christ-mass" this is clearly a biblical Holiday with clear instructions on how to celebrate. Social media is filled with posts and pictures encouraging those to think of Jesus and all he's done for us and making it clear that this is surely the reason for all of our traditions around this time of year. The actual message in the pictures and posts don't upset me really. It just brings back the memory of two years ago when a dear friend stopped talking to me simply because I didn't blindly follow the traditions of our culture and call them Christian or Biblical. In Matt. 15:9 Jesus says "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines and the commandments of men" Biblicaly Christmas nor Easter is not a command of God at all. It's simply a tradition of men. I'm not telling anyone not to celebrate whatever holidays or traditions that you feel the need to celebrate. The truth is just about all the traditions around the Holidays are skewed ideas with very little scriptures to back them up.
Now if you are still reading this please understand that this is in no way bashing the church or it's traditions. I'm not saying that celebrating these things are evil in anyway. I'm just trying to make aware that there is more truth to these traditions and hate seeing people so strongly preaching ideas that aren't completely accurate. Just as my friend did at Easter two years ago. Don't get angry at those who don't celebrate Christmas this time of year, or those who maybe celebrate different holidays with different traditions. I have up a Christmas tree and I may exchange a gift or two. I will feast, because I love turkey and ham! I do this though not in honor of Jesus, but because it's a tradition that I hold dear. Personally I feel a strong connection to the Bible and what it teaches. It's always been something I've kept fairly private as I feel spirituality is more a matter of the heart. Traditions are all in what you make them. There is nothing wrong with keeping Christ in your Christmas, but don't feel the need to throw him onto other people's holidays or lack of holidays as well. There is NOTHING dishonoring or disrespectful about saying "Happy Holidays" as opposed to saying "Merry Christmas." If anything I feel it shows more respect to your fellow Americans who are free to celebrate or not celebrate whichever holiday they choose.
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