To Celebrate, or Not To Celebrate?

Colossians 3:17 (the message) “Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.”

It's that time of year again.  We will be going to parties, singing songs, eating a lot, and bringing good will to all.  Unfortunately, this season has also brought confusion and frustration in recent years.  In our pursuit of holiness, we have become divided in the body of Christ on what days are actually holy.  This post is in response to a FB conversation from earlier today.  I hope it will give some direction and bring about healthy conversation. 

First of all, this is going to be a huge download of information.  This is why I am writing it in my blog, rather than a very long Facebook post.  I understand that may deter others from reading it, that extra click takes a few more seconds of time ;-). That’s okay, those who need to read it, will. 

I’d like to start off my response with some encouragement.  We are all learning, growing, and being cultivated by the Holy Spirit.  It is my goal to gain my insight from Him alone, through the Word of God, through study, and through prayer.  I am so excited to know that so many other believers out there are striving to do the same.  I believe that God is making us like Him, and that means we will not be the same tomorrow, we are all being positioned to be more like Him in every way.

God created and has blessed every day, in history and to come, and I believe He blesses our celebration and reflection of Him. It is my prayer that anyone choosing to follow Christ will consult the Holy Spirit on these matters for final judgement.  The Holy Spirit knows what we need as influence in our lives and if He convicts our hearts to do or not do something, we should listen to Him.  Keeping in mind, the Holy Spirit will never direct us to do something that is not confirmed in the Word of God.

There were several holidays mentioned in the original FB post by other people, so I will try to give a response on the major ones we celebrate in America.  I would like to recommend reading Colossians 3, and try this article if you’d like to know the Assemblies of God stance http://ag.org/top/beliefs/topics/sptlissues_holidays.cfm I think it gives some good advice.

Halloween:

It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that this holiday is not at all related to anything Biblical.  As Christians we are to abstain from the practice of witchcraft.  Halloween is the main event of the year for Wiccans.  This is the time of year called Samhain, known to everyone else as Halloween, for many modern pagans it's considered a Sabbat to honor the ancestors who came before us, marking the dark time of the year. They believe it is a good time to contact the spirit world with a séance, because it's the time when the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest.  Most celebrate by having a feast, they honor the god and goddess of Samhain, and they honor dead ancestors and animals with different rituals and séances.  Different groups of followers may choose to worship in different ways, and I will not go into detail about those practices.  Many choose to have a fall festival-like event where kids can have fun, dress up, and get candy, and where they can all celebrate the day with special meals and such.

To understand my position, I’d like to share a few things.  My perspective on this holiday is possibly different than the average American.  First of all, I have a brother-n-law who was a practicing Satanist before he chose to follow Jesus, I have several friends and acquaintances who are practicing Wiccans, I personally had an unhealthy obsession with witchcraft and the occult before I was a Christian, and last but not least I have been involved with mission work and with friends who are missionaries to countries where the practice of worshiping Satan and demons is a very real and common reality.  Since I am coming from this view point, I cannot in good conscience be a part of a holiday that celebrates everything I have been liberated from or that so blatantly worships other gods.  Now, I have attended churches that have fall festivals on Halloween night, and I have participated in these events.  It is important to me, to serve my church and my community.  I can see how Halloween and fall festivals can make many believers in Christ reluctant to get involved, especially now that I have kids, it is really awkward to tell them they cannot dress up when all their friends do.  We have helped them understand that it just isn’t a day we celebrate like others.  We have made a firm stand in our family that every day is made by the Lord; He made every day good, and the enemy will distort what God has made good.  We will not participate in the practices of the world, but we will be a light in the midst of it.  We have chosen to not celebrate by abstaining from trick-or-treating, we do not dress in costume, but we do take the opportunity to spread the Gospel.  If our church has an outreach, we are there serving.  If we live in a neighborhood that has kids coming to our door, we pass out candy and gospel tracks.  If we have an opportunity to love people, to be present, and share Jesus, we do it.  If there is a day people are coming to us and asking for something, we should give them the best we have.

Easter:

There are actually a lot of people out there totally against Easter; I am not one of them.  This next bit of information is pretty extensive, but I believe the enemy likes to twist the truth, and it is important to understand where our traditions come from.  Here is a little history on the holiday…

Easter (Old English usually Ēastrun, -on, or -an; also Ēastru, -o; and Ēostre),  also called Pasch (derived, through Latin: Pascha and Greek Πάσχα Paskha, from Aramaic: פסחא‎, cognate to Hebrew: פֶּסַח‎ Pesaḥ) or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial.  In traditional Christianity, it is the culmination of the Passion of Christ, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.

The week before Easter is called Holy Week, and it contains the days of the Easter Triduum, including Maundy Thursday, commemorating the Maundy and Last Supper, as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus.  In western Christianity, Eastertide, the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the fiftieth day, Pentecost Sunday.

Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars which follow only the cycle of the sun; rather, its date is determined on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council. No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated a number of controversies. It has come to be the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March, but calculations vary in East and West. Details of this complicated computation are found below in the section Date.

Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In many languages, the words for "Easter" and "Passover" are identical or very similar.  Easter customs vary across the Christian world, and include sunrise services, exclaiming the Paschal greeting, clipping the church,  and decorating Easter eggs, a symbol of the empty tomb. The Easter lily, a symbol of the resurrection,  traditionally decorates the chancel area of churches on this day and for the rest of Eastertide.  Additional customs that have become associated with Easter and are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians include egg hunting, the Easter Bunny, and Easter parades.  There are also various traditional Easter foods that vary regionally.

In Greek and Latin, the Christian celebration was and is called Πάσχα, Pascha, a word derived from Aramaic פסחא, cognate to Hebrew פֶּסַח (Pesach). The word originally denoted the Jewish festival, known in English as Passover, commemorating the story of the Exodus.  Already in the 50s of the 1st century, Paul, writing from Ephesus to the Christians in Corinth, applied the term to Christ, and it is unlikely that the Ephesian and Corinthian Christians were the first to hear Exodus 12 interpreted as speaking about the death of Jesus, not just about the Jewish Passover ritual.  In most of the non-English speaking world, the feast is known by names derived from Greek and Latin Pascha.  Pascha is also a name by which Jesus himself is remembered in the Orthodox Church, especially in connection with his resurrection and with the season of its celebration.

Now here is the pagan legend we all keep hearing about…

The modern English term Easter, cognate with modern German Ostern, developed from an Old English word that usually appears in the form Ēastrun, -on, or -an; but also as Ēastru, -o; and Ēastre or Ēostre.  The most widely accepted theory of the origin of the term is that it is derived from the name of a goddess mentioned by the 7th to 8th-century English monk Bede, who wrote that Ēosturmōnaþ (Old English 'Month of Ēostre', translated in Bede's time as "Paschal month") was an English month, corresponding to April, which he says "was once called after a goddess of theirs named Ēostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month".

The only problem with this theory, there is no historical record of any of this before Bede’s claims. 

Bottom line, as Christians we celebrate the resurrection every Sunday, which is where the tradition of meeting for church on Sunday came from, because Christ rose on a Sunday.  I will not get into major explanation of the Sabbath, but it is different than Sunday worship. Simply put,  Sabbath is a day of rest, and is not required for salvation, but is just plain smart in my opinion.  If God needed to rest and reflect on His creation, we should probably do the same.  Many like to argue over when the right day to gather is, but really, every day is the Lord ’s Day.  

How does my family choose to worship during the Easter season.  Our family loves the wonderful weather and the celebration of Spring, it was all made by Him.  We take time to fellowship and feast together.  We hide eggs and a portion of them have symbols hidden inside that help us tell the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Our “resurrection eggs” actually were the tool that lead my niece to a relationship with Christ. We focus on “Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday, and Pentecost”  I’d like to start teaching them about traditional Passover as well.  The whole season is Easter, and it is my choice to point it all toward Christ.

Christmas:

Christmas is called Christmas, because churches in Europe would have a Mass (Christ-Mass) that centered on celebrating Christ’s birth by observing communion together.  December 25th was chosen to celebrate Christ's birth because the Romans chose to celebrate it then.  The shortest day of the year (Winter Solstice) was originally the day the Romans worshiped the sun and the life it gave the earth.  When many of them became converted to Christianity they chose to celebrate the birth of the Son of God instead while the pagan festivities were happening, in their hearts they were claiming that day for Christ, and turning their hearts from evil things. They had no clue when Jesus was born, so this is when they did it, the tradition held. It has only been in more recent times that we understood more about when Jesus was most likely born.

There are some traditions around Christmas that many choose not to celebrate.  My family does not do the Santa thing, but we do let our kids know what a great defender of the faith he was.  Santa or Saint Nicholas was a great Christian who would give to the poor.  He would leave money and food for families and give to children.  Nicholas was a Bishop as well, his actual name was Nikolaos of Myra, he was a key influence at the Council of Nicaea where he defended the deity of Christ and even came to blows with his biggest contender.  This action didn't sit well with everyone else, so he was asked to step down from his place as Bishop, but the people loved him. Stories spread quickly of his generosity and outrageous actions, they grew to mythological proportions and many over time, would leave their stockings out hoping he would visit them too.  The legend became a game and a celebration of giving for many people.  It came to America when the Dutch were here.  They would celebrate Saint Nicholas day on December 6th, and then Christ-Mass was on the 25th, the two became one eventually. The celebration of Jesus' birth, and the celebration of someone who loved Jesus by giving became a tradition and one in the same.

So what about Christmas trees? The tradition comes from Northern Germany, they decorated with tree branches in their homes, (I actually decorate my own house with rustic stuff) and many believed that trees were tied to false gods.  There was a giant oak tree; The Oak of Thor that they believed would cause Thor to strike down anyone who cut it down. When the gospel was brought to them, they told the missionary about the tree.  He chopped down the oak, nothing happened, so they believed in Jesus.  He pointed to the dead oak tree and there was a green fir tree next to it.  He encouraged them to let that be a symbol of what God did.  Its evergreen leaves where a representation that God's love and forgiveness were ever present, and he encouraged them to build their homes out of it and let their home décor be built centered around Christ.  Let Christ be your constant light.  Just like the tree points up and doesn’t die, it was a symbol to them of Christ; they began to put them in their homes as a constant reminder.  

Hanukkah:

Hanukkah is a much older holiday or feast.  200 years before Jesus, the Jews were controlled by another empire, the Jewish religion and going to the temple was banned.  The emperor sacrificed a pig on the altar; this was enough to get some people angry, and so it should have.  A group of brothers rose up and sent an army against the empire and won, they spent 8 days cleansing and rededicated the temple to God. The 8 days of Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication was born.  Jesus didn't celebrate Christmas, Christmas celebrates Jesus, but He most likely grew up celebrating Hanukkah, as did all Jewish people of His time. John 10 mentions Jesus being in Jerusalem at that time, it does not go into detail however of whether he was celebrating it or not. The fact that He was there, in the temple, during this time makes it likely. 

In our family we make the season about giving, not getting.  We take time to give to others in need, and to focus on what Christ does for us.  We have a tree, and every ornament and decoration fills our house with light and beauty, giving us a clear image of the light of Christ filling our hearts.  My kids get 3 presents each, in remembrance of Jesus’ gifts from the three wise men.  We have food and feast as a family, and we love every second of the season.  It is all about Jesus!

Thanksgiving:

Last but not least, Thanksgiving.  This is most definitely a celebration of God’s provision, our freedom, and the importance of where our focus should be.  Early Americans came to this country in search of religious freedom, and were not quite prepared for the harsh place they came to.  God provided in a miraculous way.  We continue the tradition of thanking God for His constant provision.

Conclusion:

Giving the gospel and meeting needs is our Great Co-mission.  The world has influenced and capitalized on our traditions, it is up to us to claim what is Christ’s, and to change our culture for the cause of Christ.  If families choose to build their traditions of remembering Christ and giving to others around holidays like Easter, Christmas, and Thanksgiving, I see nothing wrong with it.  There are many other holidays that we will begin to see more of.  We have a large amount other religions coming to America, we can choose to hide in our homes or we can choose to be the light of the world.

As God gives us instructions in His Word and by His Spirit, I believe we will all be called to change, to deny ourselves and our desires, and to live a separate life.  I also believe that God delights in our celebration of Him.  He is making us like Him, and we must listen to what the Holy Spirit is directing us to do, not man.  This is all in an effort to be reconciled to the Father, His true Kingdom come.  But, I also believe we are called to this while living right in the middle of the world.  They need to see that we are different, but they will know we are followers of Christ by our love.