There seem to be holidays for every occasion. The secular folk and Christians alike celebrate anything that might symbolize something. There is Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Inauguration Day, Washington's Birthday, and Memorial Day. Halloween, Valentines Day, Saint Patrick and April Fools Day, Father’s day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, and Good Friday. Those are just a few of the holidays, which have been ‘created’ for one purpose or another.
For me personally, I am in a relearning mode in my life and Christianity and at this time I have chosen to not celebrate any of them. Until I can discover exactly why I am celebrating them other than for celebrations sake then I will abstain. I have many well-meaning Christian friends and family that think I have lost it. Forbid, maybe I am living in secret sin!
Of course, in my ponderings about why I should or should not celebrate some of the ‘special’ so-called Christian holidays I ended up having to write an article. It was not written so much for others to read as it was for me to see in black and white my thoughts and decisions up to that point. In my studying, I came across another’s writing online that made an interesting suggestion.
Regardless of whether I agree with his whole writings on why Christians should not celebrate Christmas is neither here nor there. It is noteworthy and it did spawn a piece of art!
J. Beard writes: “Realize that Christians Celebrating Christmas as the Day of Christ's Birth Makes No More Sense than Adding Any of the Following Days as Special Days of Christian Celebration:
1. Baptism Celebration -- Why not have three days of swimming parties in the summer in order to celebrate/symbolize Christ's three days in the grave? We could even pick a time based upon our speculation of when John the Baptist baptized Jesus!
2. Ascension Celebration -- Why not have one day set aside every year for hot-air balloon rides in order to celebrate Christ's ascension to heaven?
3. Miracle Celebration -- There is considerable Biblical focus on Jesus' miracles (even more than on his birth), so why not have one day set aside every year to celebrate the first of Christ's miracles? And since that was the turning of water into wine (John 2), why not have "Christian" wine-tasting parties?”
I am sure there are a few of you over-religious or righteous folks that are gasping for air... forbid… to suggest such things. Sacrilege! (The French are known for their romantic language but growing up with a French family, when they said that word… it was not romantic and you needed to duck fast for fear that ‘Gawd’ was going to send lightning at that very moment to someone in the room!) It isn’t blasphemy or disrespect in any way. Come off your high horse and ponder this for a minute. (I won’t tell anyone that you are pondering such awful things, I promise.)
Why don’t we celebrate Ascension Day? Or the baptism or miracles? Or any other of the many various things Jesus did? The ascension was just as important to our salvation as was the death on the cross and the resurrection. Maybe, just maybe Gawd didn’t institute these holidays and man decided it would be a good, righteous and religious thing to do?
~ If you would like to see a bigger version of the piece of art that I have posted here called ‘Ascension Day ’ feel free to pm me and I will email it to you.
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