Do You Celebrate Other Religion's Holdiays?

[yuuteya]

I wondering do you celebrate or participate in the holidays's of other religions?

Im not christian but i participate in christmas events. like buying a cake, eating a chicken, put up a wreth, attend a party, and give presents.

What do the other non-christians in here do when there is a holiaday of another religion that is not yours?

How about chiristians, do you celebrate the holdiays of other cultures?

[Craig]

How is 'eating a chicken' a Christmas or Christian event ?

[LaiSteve66]

I don't celebrate any religious holidays.

[AngryABCGirl]

That seems really kitsch-ich and disrespectful.

I only do some commercial stuff for Christmas, I'll give gifts but I hardly call it celebrating a religious holiday. The other times I might do anything is if a friend wants me to attend something with her/him, otherwise it's like I'm trampling on something I know nothing about.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

That seems really kitsch-ich and disrespectful.
Well it depends on the context. In Malaysia, for example, there are at least some non-Muslims who observe the Ramadan fast, (or at least go home and hide to eat lunch, drink their morning coffee in the bathroom, etc.), because it feels disrespectful if you're seen not observing it by people who are.

[Yeahman]

There just isn't much pomp surrounding non-Christian holidays in the US so they're harder to celebrate. How would a non-Jew celebrate Yom Kipur?

[eos]

i'm not affiliated with any religion but my grandma is buddhist so i have to do certain things at certain times of the year. when i went to catholic school i had to go to church for christmas, easter, etc.
isn't chinese new year well known in the US?

[TB4000]

My sister's friend is jewish, so she celebrates chanukah with her every year and vice versa. The friend makes it a habit to give me a chocolate driedel every year, with a note asking if i want to take her to the movies. Go figure these kids and their bizzare ways. And we do kwanzaa, even if the boondocks says it's a fake holiday. :p

[Yeahman]

isn't chinese new year well known in the US?
It's not a religious holiday but yeah lots of Americans celebrate it.

[eos]

My sister's friend is jewish, so she celebrates chanukah with her every year and vice versa. The friend makes it a habit to give me a chocolate driedel every year, with a note asking if i want to take her to the movies. Go figure these kids and their bizzare ways. And we do kwanzaa, even if the boondocks says it's a fake holiday. :p


so do you take her to the movies? i'm not jewish but if i give you a chocolate.....ummmm, a BOX of chocolates, can you take me to the movies too???? :tongue:

[TB4000]

so do you take her to the movies? i'm not jewish but if i give you a chocolate.....ummmm, a BOX of chocolates, can you take me to the movies too???? :tongue:
Make it a box of those peanut butter cup mini things and we can negotiate.

[thaite]

Wait, I still wanna know how buying a cake and eating a chicken are Christmas observances.

[eos]

hell-O?!? how can you not know about christmas cake and holiday chicken??? have you been living under a rock? psh.

[Hanuman]

I celebrate Christmas, even though I'm buddhist. But for us, it's not really a religious observence, it's more a cultural thing, just a great time to be with family and friends and enjoy food, company and presents!

[Hiroshi2]

I didn't know non-christian people put up christmas trees and shit.

[applehead]

I wondering do you celebrate or participate in the holidays's of other religions?

Im not christian but i participate in christmas events. like buying a cake, eating a chicken, put up a wreth, attend a party, and give presents.

What do the other non-christians in here do when there is a holiaday of another religion that is not yours?

How about chiristians, do you celebrate the holdiays of other cultures?

yeah but the things you do, i don't really
view as celebrating christmas in a religious sense.

it's like saying you celebrate easter as a religious
holiday because you dye eggs and eat marshmallow
bunnies.

i don't think i've... there is an indian holiday
when my indian friend used to come
over and feed me indian sweets.
but i don't think it was religious.

[robotic]

i don't think i've... there is an indian holiday
when my indian friend used to come
over and feed me indian sweets.
but i don't think it was religious.

diwali?

i went to diwali parties as a kid,
and there would be sweets and firecrackers and dancing and just the funnest atmosphere to experience, sparkling all around you.

[applehead]

yes. that was it!

oh i guess it is religious.

[nonamerasian]

I've celebrated a few Chanukahs and Passovers with friends.

[Irezumi Kiss]

Name any religious holiday that has a generous amount of good food at its celebratory base and I've most likely done it. Eating brings people together no matter where you're from.

Make it a box of those peanut butter cup mini things and we can negotiate.
and I thought I was easy...a bottle of shochu usually buys my love...

[yuuteya]

Name any religious holiday that has a generous amount of good food at its celebratory base and I've most likely done it. Eating brings people together no matter where you're from.

exactly.


i dont understand why some people dont like chicken and cake? theyre delicious.

[Arex]

I didn't know non-christian people put up christmas trees and shit.My family does. Even my brother, who's very anti-religion, sets up a tree and does the whole Christmas feast and gift exchange thing. A lot of my friends are the same way. My girlfriend's mom is Buddhist, but she put up Christmas wreath and does the whole gift exchange thing as well. I guess it just goes to show that Christmas in this country has, to a lot of people, become more of a cultural, secular holiday than a religious one.

[TB4000]

They worship Santa, not Jesus.

[kuilong]

Well, with Christmas, are we talking about the feast of the Nativity on Dec. 25, or the high holy day of the American civil religion that happens to fall on the same day?

[SunWuKong]

it's not a religious celebration and this is kind of off-topic, but it would rock if Lunar New Year was a federal holiday.

[kimpossible]

Wait, I still wanna know how buying a cake and eating a chicken are Christmas observances.


Lol. I know what he means. Christmas cake and roasting a bird. It's just more of a Japanese spin on Christmas.

As to our holidays. My husband isn't particularly tolerant of Christian observances so he's only okay with the more superficial aspects of Christmas, Easter, etc. I like to get a little more into the holiday spirit but I'm not remotely religious by American standards so we've worked it out that we concentrate on food, fun, family and decorations. I used to put together traditional holiday meals but the guys aren't crazy about it so I've switched to things like duck, seafood and hot pot for family holiday meals.

I'm not sure Chinese New Year counts as a religious holiday but I participate in that a bit. I really didn't know the first thing about it and assumed it was going to be all lions and firecrackers but we mostly cram into one apartment for days on end stuffing ourselves silly, giving out red envelopes to the younger kids, and maybe hit some holiday sales. The only firecrackers I've heard are out in the street or over the PA system at department stores. Oh, and on one of the days we take turns, light incense and bow three times to pictures of ancestors (not mine).

One day I'd like to see the more public type of Chinese New Year out on the street with full fanfare. Does that really happen in many places or is that a misrepresentation I grew up with on American television?

[SunWuKong]

One day I'd like to see the more public type of Chinese New Year out on the street with full fanfare. Does that really happen in many places or is that a misrepresentation I grew up with on American television?

it's more public in HK, with decorations on buildings and stuff. for that matter it's kind of like that in Manhattan Chinatown, too.

[kimpossible]

I didn't even get to see one in HK over New Year. We went to The Peak, shopped. Maybe I was in the wrong area. Although I do have some video I shot where the buildings lit up the Ram symbol in office lights.

I think my expectations were born of American movie watching.

[yuuteya]

yeah but the things you do, i don't really
view as celebrating christmas in a religious sense.

it's like saying you celebrate easter as a religious
holiday because you dye eggs and eat marshmallow
bunnies.

i don't think i've... there is an indian holiday
when my indian friend used to come
over and feed me indian sweets.
but i don't think it was religious.
Actually, I think the title of this thread was misleading. You are correct. I am doing the "non religious" kind of chiristmas activity. To me christmas is a social event, but not about religion of chiristianity. Maybe i should have said Do you celebrate Other "Cultures" holidays.

Hey thats interesting. I like indian sweets, like those puinjabi style colored squares? I would like to celebrate any holiday that involves eating good food^ No fasting holidays, theyre no fun,

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Mostly Muslim Senegal Celebrates Christmas
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051224/ap_on_re_af/senegal_a_very_muslim_christmas_1

DAKAR, Senegal - Hundreds of young men decked with tinsel wander outside Senegal's mosques, hawking plastic Christmas trees. Women pray to Allah on a sidewalk where an inflatable Santa Claus happens to be hanging.

Senegal may be 95 percent Muslim, but it certainly knows it's Christmas. In fact, for this nation of 12 million it's a national holiday.

Blame it on globalization, which has turned the West's yuletide icons into a worldwide commodity. Or the Internet, or Hollywood, or the availability of travel that allows new generations of Senegalese to sample Christmas at close quarters. But mainly, Senegalese revel in the trappings of Christmas because they can and want to.

Muslims recognize Jesus Christ as a prophet, but don't generally celebrate the date of his birth. Many Muslim societies discourage Christmas hoopla. But Senegalese say they have a long history of tolerance and coexistence with Christians, so why not share Christmas?

"Officially, we Muslims don't celebrate Christmas. But the Catholics are our neighbors. So, we all celebrate all the religious holidays," said El Hadj Diop, 60, sitting in front of his African antique store.

"We share the same houses, even graveyards," Diop said. "It has been the same for years."

Islam arrived at this western tip of Africa hundreds of years ago, borne across the Sahara by slave and spice traders from the north. French colonialists with Bibles came afterward. Now, many practitioners of both faiths have adapted their religions to local mores.

Few Muslim women in Senegal wear head scarves or cover up in robes. Nightclubs party until dawn, although the drink of choice is more likely juice than booze. Christians and Muslims alike wear "gris-gris," magic charms meant to ward off bad luck.

Unlike in countries such as Saudi Arabia, where images of humans are taboo, Senegalese Muslims paint pictures of their spiritual leaders on the sides of buses.

Most of Senegal's Christians live in the south, far from Dakar, and the capital has only a few churches and nothing resembling a nativity display.

But the government has strung lights across thoroughfares, including one that passes the city's main mosque.

Here "Jingle Bells" lilts from radios as the call to prayer booms from minarets.

Hawkers hang long strands of tinsel over their ears as they wander the streets looking for buyers. Others carry gaudy blowup Santas. An African Santa in a fuzzy white beard sits at a supermarket as tourists snap his picture.

Christians say they welcome the solidarity and repay it by partaking in Islamic holidays.

"People here believe in God; it's what nourishes us and binds us," said Eric Midahuen, a Christian who works in a spectacles store next door to Diop's antiques shop.

"It's our tradition, this cohabitation. When we're born and baptized our Muslim neighbors are there. They help us all the way, even into the grave," said the 40-year-old father of two. "We're all the same before God, who allows us to recognize him in all others."

Diop echoes many of his countrymen in saying Muslim extremists elsewhere are falsely interpreting the Muslim holy book, the Quran, and sullying Islam's reputation.

"The Quran says Muslims mustn't force their religion on others. Aggression has no place in Islam," he says.

Indeed, Senegal is a peaceful oasis among some strife-torn neighbors.

It's a budding democracy under the motto "one people, one goal, one faith," but doesn't decree which faith that should be.

Secularism elsewhere may mean the freedom not to celebrate a religious holiday. In Senegal many interpret it to mean they should celebrate all of them.

"Here in Senegal, it's a secular country. Everyone wants to buy cakes and gifts. We respect Christians and they respect us," says Fatou Mata, 40, a mother of two.

And she faces the yuletide pressures familiar to parents everywhere: "If my kids don't have a present on Christmas, they'll cry."

[Hiroshi2]

They worship Santa, not Jesus.




Yeah I see what you mean. Worshipping commercialism is more like it. Everybody, no matter who or what you believe in or don't believe in, likes getting gifts, and I guess x-mas has been commercialized to the point to where even non-christians celebrate it, not because of any spiritual significance, but because they like getting gifts and buying shit. Or even better, having people buy shit for them.

[yuuteya]

Or even better, having people buy shit for them.greed, the universal religion..hehe

Or even better, having people buy shit for them.greed, the universal religion..hehe

[applehead]

Actually, I think the title of this thread was misleading. You are correct. I am doing the "non religious" kind of chiristmas activity. To me christmas is a social event, but not about religion of chiristianity. Maybe i should have said Do you celebrate Other "Cultures" holidays.

Hey thats interesting. I like indian sweets, like those puinjabi style colored squares? I would like to celebrate any holiday that involves eating good food^ No fasting holidays, theyre no fun,

especially this year, i've noticed now
that we're all older. the holiday
season isn't very religious at all.
it's just become an excuse to eat a
home cooked meal with the rest of the family.
i didn't even go to midnight mass.

yeah the colorful squares.
i actually dislike indian sweets.