Any Jehovah's Witnesses out there?

[LadyCad]

DD has a friend who is a JW, and I've been thinking about her a lot.

Christmas is just so huge nowadays, it's everywhere from mid-October onwards.What's it really like growing up in a JW family and not participating in any of that stuff. The local school that DD and her friend attend is a church school (christian) so we have carol concerts and....oh I dunno, all the usual stuff.It's endless and everywhere. She has Hindu and Muslim friends who celebrate Christmas to an extent, in some way or another.

I'm not entirely sure what I think about the whole Christmas thing myself, tbh. We're not Christian but I do love the lights and the singing and oh!how I do love the food.

But what is it like not doing Christmas at all, when you're a child?

Oh, I am emphatically not a journalist, as any who recognise me will know.

And wouldn't it be splendid if this didn't end up as just another JW-bashing thread?

Back now...

So LadyInAManger's question about birthdays and why JWs don't celebrate them. If you Google birthdays and their origins, it's pretty much accepted that most of the customs we associate with birthdays have their roots back in pagan customs and magic rituals. Of course, before people had calendars it was difficult to keep track of the day you were born, but when calendars were introduced by the Egyptians and then the Romans, your birthday was vitally important for fortune-telling and astrology. The Greeks were big on birthdays - they believed that everyone had their own guardian spirit, and you were closer to the spirit world on the day you were born, and having a party with gifts and lighting candles would ensure you'd be protected for the next year. People in Europe believed similar, except that they thought they were closer to the evil spirit world on your birthday, so people would all come round to protect you, give gifts and good wishes to ward off evil spirits.

The early Christians didn't celebrate birthdays, believing them to be pagan. (As Mistymoo said, the two birthday references mentioned in the Bible concern people who didn't worship God.) It was only in about the 4th century that birthdays began to be celebrated within Christianity.

this is good for an extensive secular explanation

Even though the Bible doesn't specifically forbid birthday celebrations, it refers to them in a bad light and as being celebrated by non-worshippers of God. I also know the origins. So given all of that - personally - I don't feel I can celebrate them in a 'birthday' way.

On my children's actual birthdays though, of course I remember (ouch) their birth, talk to them about when they were born, about being a year older and how happy I am that they're here.

Wedding anniversaries are a bit different for us. It's an anniversary of an event, like any other anniversary, and people choose to remember it in different ways. Most of the time, it's just a romantic meal out with your other half (that's all we can stretch to these days!). Big anniversaries like a 25th or a 50th, you'd probably have a party - but that would be up to each individual JW couple, there are no prescribed rules.

As I've said - this is my personal viewpoint - I'm not offended or judgemental about the rest of the birthday-celebrating world! And of course, you might meet other JWs who feel or express themselves slightly differently on the subject...

Thanks whizzipop, that seems a little clearer now though not it seems an actual rule then with JWs as you metioned 'personally'. Every JW i have met have always shunned birthdays so would you be ostrazised (sp) if you did decide to celebrate as the Bible doesn't forbid it, or just frowned upon?

I was brought up very strictly in a born again Christian household, no Hallowe'en celebrations or beliefs in Santa/Easter bunny or Tooth fairy etc but it's funny that now i'm married with DC i celebrate all those things with no thought of pagan/evil spirit overtones. When hallowe'en comes around i decorate the house, carve pumpkins, attend parties, all sorts but know full well deep down i am not inviting evil spirits into my life as it's just a bit of fun. Regarding the Easter bunny/Santa and tooth fairy again it's just a bit of fun and allowing LO's to escape into fantasyland - they grow up so fast and think for themselves anyway it's soon lost until they have LO's. I felt i missed out on all that and so encourage my DC to enjoy and be apart of the whole experience whatever the celebration and my mother bless her will read the banned books from my childhood (magic faraway tree) to my DC when she babysits as she realises she was too into doing the right thing at the time and maybe missed out on it (she doesn't however have anything to do with hallowe'en nor would i expect her to being Christian). I regard myself as a Christian still as belief in my God and living my life right but teach my DC that i believe such and such but some people don't and that is okay; so they choose what they believe when they grow older - freedom of choice etc. It troubles me that JWs aren't to have anything to do with ex JWs if they have strayed away or married non JWs whether they are your children or strangers and that saddens me as God is love.

Thankyou again for your insights and info, it's been interesting

Interesting for me too LadyInAManger, and sorry if I confused you at the end of my post - JWs don't celebrate birthdays. I was talking about 'my personal viewpoint' not as in other JWs do things differently from me, but just because I don't want to come across as preachy or putting down anybody else's beliefs.

I have found this really interesting, thank you. i am a teacher and just this week have been preparing some 'winter' activities for a boy in my class who is a JW. He is a lovely little boy and has been really good at answering my questions and coming up with a compromise for our work.