On Celebrating Christmas: Turning Heads and Joining Hearts
"Getting ready for Christmas?" he asked, and turned to face forward again. Some impulse made me decide to catch him by surprise.
"Actually, I don't celebrate Christmas," I responded. (I'm a Baha'i.) He jerked his head around to look at me abruptly.
Heather Brandon, "Spooky times in the 'hood," Urban Compass: Life in the City
+Not celebrate Christmas? That statement may cause heads to turn in some neighborhoods.
Annie asks in a comment to a previous post why Baha'is don't celebrate Christmas. One answer might be, for the same reason that Christians don't celebrate the Jewish holidays. Sandy Mullins, the Baha'i editor at BellaOnline: The Voice of Women has a succinct article on "Baha'is and Christmas." As she points out, as Baha'is recognize the essential validity of all religions, there sure would be a lot of holidays to celebrate if we celebrated them all, although that sounds quite fun.
Maybe my wife and I can go to Annie's church again this year on Christmas. We sure enjoyed it when we went two years ago, and now the larger sanctuary is larger, so we might not end up taking away seats from the regular parishioners. I sure loved the songs and the spirit. Here is the website for Discovery Baptish Church. My dear daughter-in-law can be seen with my son Ruh'u'llah in one of the masthead pictures. -gw
3 comments:
Thanks George! We would love for you and Bonita to come to our Christmas Eve service! I am sure we will be coming over for a visit soon since I will have a little something for you and Bonita! Talk to you soon! :)
oh thanks for the link to the calendar.
this post snippet form another blog reminded me of a Ramadhan, 2-3 years back, when the school cafeteria was kinda totally occupied by all Muslem students (of diff. cultures) to break their fast in the evening... one day, right before the time of breaking the fast, i was also sitting at a table reading and eating. there came this Afghan sitting across the table,i knew him from another class who also knew i am originally iranian, he stared at me for a min. or so, then he asked:"aren't you fasting?"
i said:"No"
he goes: "aren't you a muslem?"
i said: "No"
he turned his face, shocked and insulted mumbling: "what a shame!" and off he went.
well, he didn't even give me the chance to tell him not all iranians are supposed to and are muslems... and not anyone whose parents are muslems are supposed to follow their parents' religion.
i do appreciate this freedom i have in canada to express what i do or don't follow openly; however, it's sad to see people with such biased ideas.
i've been also told some churches have nice programs for christmas, i have never attended any though; this year i was thinking i might as well. we'll see!
thanks for the comment, by the way. what i wrote on old age is just my own assumption... not always that happens... it's interesting that in Buddhism, they also believe that you are born to this world without your consent, but it's important how to live your life and how to die.
i heard this from some muslem figures researching on islam as well.
and what you said about being a prison of self is quite right, i also had heard it somewhere else...
i believe we, humans, can choose to stay in that or try to let us free.
Thanks for the mention, George!
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