Does Christianity have any true Holy Days left?

[James]

I have to confess . .. I generally thank the people that bought me the gifts and made the food instead. . . but thats just me.

Originally posted by honeychile

I admit that I don't. I go to Christmas Eve services, and we thank the Lord prior to opening any gifts or eating or whatever, but do I really spend the entire day in worship to Christ? No. And with the true definition of "holy" being "set apart", I don't think many others do, either.

[RACooper]

Originally posted by honeychile
A Christian that uses "F- you, we want our religion in your face" isn't really practicing a "holy" day.


I really do think we've gotten off track on this thread. Does ANYONE really, really set any one day apart to solely worship Jesus Christ?

I admit that I don't. I go to Christmas Eve services, and we thank the Lord prior to opening any gifts or eating or whatever, but do I really spend the entire day in worship to Christ? No. And with the true definition of "holy" being "set apart", I don't think many others do, either.

Ah but what is "solely" worshipping Christ imply? Does that mean going to the Christmas Eve and Day Masses and spending the rest of the day at home reading the bible or praying? Or does it mean going to Mass and then opening your house and your heart to family and friends, and celebrating the friendship and love? I think the last would be more in character with what the Bible says of ol'JC.

[Honeykiss1974]

Originally posted by IowaStatePhiPsi
I dont see Christmas as much as a Holy time but rather a "fuck you- we want our religion to be in your face!!!" time for Christians.
Sad, really.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,141920,00.html

That's like saying Halloween is the "in your face" time for non-christians to christians. LOL

Its not Christians that make it an "in your face" time, but RETAILERS! Seriously people, if retailers could make money off of Ramadan or The Day of The Dead, please believe that they would. Why? Because its not just Christians or religious people spending money during the holidays - its EVERYBODY (religious and non-religious alike).

On another note...

I totally agree with you. Aside from nuns and monks, I don't think anyone (myself included) spends the entire day in visible prayer/devotion. However, I do know that in every way, shape or form, everything that we do should worship Christ -whether it be in the manner in which to treat/talk to others, in servitude to others, our faithfulness on the jobs (i.e. i should be working instead of on GC ), or even by spending time studying His word. This type of worship is no less valuable.

[dekeguy]

OK, this is written from my personal belief. I am a Catholic and a convinced man of faith, so please read this as it is intended, which is my point of view and my belief.

Aw c'mon guys, give me a break! If one believes that Jesus is in fact our Saviour and that in its early stages Christianity co-opted other holiday observances to assist people in understanding their new faith, what is the problem? I could care less WHEN the actual birth of Christ occured. I care THAT it occured. If we use a convenient day such as 25 DEC, so what? If it celebrated someone else but we now use that date to celebrate the birth of Jesus, then great. I believe that the object of the enterprise is to explain the message of Christ so that people can more easily accept it. We are not celebrating pagan rites, we are celebrating the birth of Christ. On halloween we are celebrating all hallows eve where we pray for all those who have died. And yes, growing up we did pray for all souls and the next day we prayed in thanksgiving for all who were in Heaven. Even as a small kid I clearly remember the Nuns explaining the meaning of All souls day and all saints day and how the halloween celebration came from earlier beliefs and superstitions which were simply absorbed to give a reference point to help early converts to grasp what we Catholics held to be the true meaning. If co-opting an earlier feast day to help illustrate the meaning of Christ's message was useful in making the message easier to grasp and understand then I think that is a first class idea. Consider the Cathedral of Chartres in France. Early missionaries learned that a local belief held that a virgin goddess would have a son who would be a great redeamer. This belief was centered on a "sacred spring".
So, the missionaries built a church which eventually became the Cathedral over the site of the spring and told all the locals, listen up guys, your story is close but no cigar. Here is the real story ...
so the people found that it was easy to accept Jesus the Redeamer Son of the Virgin Mary. They were not celebrating an earlier pagan belief, they were explaining how the true story of Christ could be seen as the fulfillment of an earlier but flawed or incomplete belief. From the point of view of a Catholic and a man of convinced faith, anything that helps people accept the gift of salvation merited by Christ for all of us makes good sense to me.
Further to the issue of "pure" holy days, it seems to me that observance of the religious aspects of certain set-aside days does not preclude enjoyment of these days. I seriously doubt that God counts the number of minutes we spend observing such a day. I expect that He is pleased that we honor Him in a special way, not by how long we sit around doing it. I further believe that He is pleased that his children have an opportunity to rest and relax and participate in recreational activities. Giving gifts for Christmas seems like a great way to honor the birth of Christ by emulating the gifts of the Three Kings. (Yeah, whole 'nother story there). What a great time to practice charity as well. If one keeps focused on the utility of co-opting these days to help people receive the message of Christ then surely this must be seen as good and positive. To object to ways to spread the message of Christ seems to me to be the opposite of good and actually negative.

[dekeguy]

Honeychile,
As to spending the whole day worshiping Jesus, I figure that professing Christianity involves committment on several levels. To oversimplify, you have to talk the talk and then it sort of flows naturally you have to walk the walk. To me that means I have to realize that our Saviour paid the bill for all of us and we need only to accept His gift. Now, accepting His gift means to me that I must come to know that He is my Saviour and then arrange my life so that I do my best to live His message. As many times as I stumble I need to say sorry and try again, just a bit harder. In so doing I apply at the start of each day the ancient prayer "Ad majorem Dei gloriam". This is to dedicate all my works of that day to "The Greater Glory of God". In that way I offer my whole experience of the day as a prayer. Its also a very nice way of reminding myself that if all that I do is offered, then it would be a good idea to keep my actions in the right direction. So, by honest application of the meaning of "AMDG" then every day is a day spent glorifying God.

[Optimist Prime]

Jesus died to end all sin. He took or tried to take everyone's karma on himself, which was very nice of him. But his act cancels out all sin. Its all instantly forgiven. Whether you beleieve or not. Jesus died to pay for your soul, so go get your money's worth. He wants you to have a good time. And stop wearing crosses. If the second coming ever happens, do you think Jesus would want to see that? Show him a picture of some kids you adopted or something, or maybe some of those Harvey Birdman cartoons. Just not a cross. That's kind of mean. I don't really know if this will start a debate, but its times like these I thank god I'm an atheist.

[CutiePie2000]

Originally posted by Lady Pi Phi
IWhat are everyone's thoughts on this? Does Christianity have any pure holy days left?

Don't forget Mardi Gras, the kickoff to Lent...BWA HA HA HA....

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by Lady Pi Phi
Really? My art history book uses B.C.E and C.E. It's really for the sake of political correctness. A lot of newer books will use those terms.

Yes, really. I go to a Jesuit university so if you can't handle seeing a crucifix in every room, you don't go there, and thus BC and AD don't offend people. My boyfriend graduated from a public university as a history major and he said they never had that in books either.

and Joel, those are two isolated incidents. The entire staff at my retail store is Christian, and we have been instructed to say "Happy Holidays" to our customers. If somebody wishes us a Merry Christmas, of course we'll say that back, but if they don't, this way they aren't offended. Nobody wants to hear about the Baby J when purchasing beautiful stilettos.

and Dekeguy, those were great posts.

[Peaches-n-Cream]

I was watching GMA this morning and they had a segment about removing Christmas from Christmas. It was an annoying attempt to be politically correct only it offends most people. Instead of singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas," children sang "We wish you a swinging holiday." It was just annoying and ridiculous.

[Honeykiss1974]

Originally posted by Peaches-n-Cream
I was watching GMA this morning and they had a segment about removing Christmas from Christmas. It was an annoying attempt to be politically correct only it offends most people. Instead of singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas," children sang "We wish you a swinging holiday." It was just annoying and ridiculous.

I saw that too. I was thinking why didn't they just sing "neutral" songs like Jingle Bells or Winter Wonderland. LOL

This reminds me of something that happened in my city. Our city sponsored this festival called Winterfest, complete with Christmas tree. In an attempt to not offend, they called it "the community tree". LOL. People, both religious and non-religious, flooded the mayor's office with complaints on that. A few days later, the mayor apologized saying that from this point on, it will be called a Christmas tree.

[MSKKG]

Originally posted by Optimist Prime
Jesus died to end all sin. He took or tried to take everyone's karma on himself, which was very nice of him. But his act cancels out all sin. Its all instantly forgiven. Whether you beleieve or not. Jesus died to pay for your soul, so go get your money's worth. He wants you to have a good time. And stop wearing crosses. If the second coming ever happens, do you think Jesus would want to see that? Show him a picture of some kids you adopted or something, or maybe some of those Harvey Birdman cartoons. Just not a cross. That's kind of mean. I don't really know if this will start a debate, but its times like these I thank god I'm an atheist.

There is no way to go into an in-depth theological discussion on the computer. I will say, however, that Jesus didn't die to end all sin--we still sin today. By His death and Resurrection, He conquered death so that we may have eternal life.

If by "having a good time" you mean worshipping the Holy Trinity, then I guess Jesus does want us to have a good time.

Concerning why Christians wear and display crosses, the cross is a sign of victory and lets everyone know they are followers of Christ. It's not mean--it's triumphal!

In regard to your last sentence, why would you thank something you don't believe in?