Fact: I do not
celebrate birthdays or Christmas or Easter or valentines.
The main reason for
this being that I choose to serve God and try to make him happy as one of
Jehovah's Witnesses. The history surrounding these pagan celebrations is
horrific. But I wont say that "I dont celebrate these holidays because I'm
a witness", my decision to not celebrate these holiday is my own well
informed choice.
Birthdays
The customs of
celebrating, congratulation, offering gifts and even cakes complete with
candles in ancient times were there to protect the birthday celebrant from
demons and ensure his security in the coming year.
It was also to
celebrate people as important, almost a form of worship.
I worship no human,
and I dont want people worshiping me. If you want to tell me you care about
me, frankly it offends me that you reserve it only for one day a year.
As for clients who
tell, beg and plead with me to help them on my closed days because "its a
birthday", it makes me want to help them less, not more!
Christmas
How about Christmas?
Santa Claus who is actually another
rendition of St. Nicolas which is actually satan.
And of course 25 December is NOT when Jesus was born, think about it, really,
the shepherds were out in the fields tending to their flocks in the middle of
the night. Late December in the northern hemisphere is midwinter, and no
shepherd or sheep would be found outdoors at that time of the year. Xmas was
actually really a ploy of the Romans around 100 or more years after Jesus died
in order to convert the pagans to Christianity, so they brought the pagan
rituals across and called them
christian.
Easter
Now there's one,
easter is supposed to be the celebration
of Jesus' death. This is one that they at least have at the right time of the
year, yes He did die around about mid March- mid April. However everything else about easter is false and
pagan! It yet again boils down to loads of PAGAN religious practices, practices
that God explicitly told the Israelites and later the Christians not to do.
The easter bunny and
the eggs all symbolize the gods of fertility (breeding like rabbits...) because
at that time of the year in the northern hemisphere spring has sprung and the
bunnies (and all manner of other creatures) are making babies. Yup, and you
send your kids to go chasing after gods of fertility. Hmmmm, I wonder why
they're sexually active at 12 years old?
I'm not going to go
down the line of Valentines, Halloween, St Patrick's Day, and the plethora of
other holidays and celebrations that you and I know are actually not so great.
The biggest argument
most people use nowadays is "But that was
1500 - 2000 years ago, we don't do this because we're celebrating that, we're
doing it because its fun, its family time, its nice for the kids."
Yes, maybe so, but
here's the thing. Do YOU love God?
Think about the
bigger picture, God was in existence and has watched the comings and goings of
thousands of generations, he has watched the start of these practices. Imagine,
he was watching when some of these practices included the sacrificing of live babies in fire to pagan gods and he was
disgusted. If you had witnessed those atrocious acts, every single time you
heard a christmas carol, or saw an easter bunny, even if they are not used for
such disgusting practices right now, what would run through your mind? Undoubtedly
the awful memory of screaming babies as they burnt to death while their parents
sacrificed them. The picture etched in your mind as people self mutilated in
honor of their false gods. Or perhaps the thought that all suffering those
people put themselves through was for nothing!
God has a perfect
memory, he too remembers that, every single time!
When I consider
that, I am not enticed by the green and red of christmas, I am not excited by a
valentines card, or happy when I see an easter bunny, I am disgusted, repulsed.
I also want to do the things pleasing to God, and these celebrations are obviously
not.
That is why I choose
NOT to celebrate these things.
But that's not to say
I don't believe in having fun, in sharing good times with family and friends, or
even in giving gifts.
I love giving and
receiving gifts. Time spent with my loved ones is the time I cherish the most.
And I love to have fun. So here's a thought, why wait for a birthday to give a
loved one a present? Why wait for christmas to spend time with your family? Do
it NOW, Today or tomorrow. You don't need an excuse to show your family and
friends that you care.
