People there have several holidays that we don't and we have a few they don't. We don't have a while month full of different independance days and flag day, while they don't have Thanksgiving.
We celebrate birthdays differently, we celebrate Christmas differently. And I can remember the first year we had a Halloween contingent, when a crowd of kids showed up at our door one night chanting "triky, triky, Haloeen" we didn't plant for it but we learned to have popcorn on hand October 31st, so we could make a quick treat if people came by to celebrate one of "our" holidays.
Now I live in rural Ohio, in a majority Catholic community. Here Christmas is literally sacred for many, and Haloween is questionable, but the biggest festival of the year, the unquestioned event on every calendar is The Great Darke County Fair. Businesses close their doors, and school is delayed till after the fair. We start school here almost three weeks later than the rest of the state, because of the fair.
Holidays are now a war zone in our culture. Should I say "Merry Christmas" I would be in trouble at school for trying to force my religion down someone's throat. Question the premise of Haloween, and you are liable to hear people call you a kill joy.
I find myself asking questions of our understanding and practice of holidays in general. I grew up that way. Why do we do this? What does it mean? Is it contrary to the Gospel? Can it be used as a bridge to the Gospel? Where does it come from.
We just got through Haloween, or in modern English The day before All Saints Day. The holiday is in my opinion a classic syncretism of pagan, ancestor and spirit worship with Catholic tradition. All saints day is when they remember all the saints who have died. There is a special mass and lots of visiting of graves. And interestingly it is in the same season as many pagan religions celebrations of the spirits and the dead. That is true all around the world, the dates vary, but the day of the dead, or the day when spirits wander loose looking for the living, is a fairly common theme. In the fall of the year. Whether it is candles, candy sculls, disguises, or carved turnips or pumpkins the spirits are loose, and people must take precautions.
And such practices do not point to the gospel. I would say it might present an opportunity to present the gospel, but I am not sure most people have any idea what it means. Candy? Greed and gluttony?
This is followed by the very American celebration of Thanksgiving, which while it sounds like a Biblical concept, has degenerated into Glutony, violent games in the coliseum, and a day of intemperate expenditures. Whatever we may be thankfull for, and to whom is secondary what actually happens is overheating football, and Black Friday.
We might be able to bring this one back to the Gospel, but we would have to awaken from our turkey coma, and step away from the screen. And I'm not sure how likely that is.
And then there is Christmass, the mythical most wonderful day of the year. Named for the Catholic mass that is celebrated that day, it also coincides with several ancient "birth of the gods" celebrations. And ironically most serious Bible scholars would scoff as anyone who actually beloved it is even remotely related to the day Christ was born. And while the giving if gifts is supposed to emulate God's gift of his son, right now public displays of mangers and babies are virtually illegal in some places and the main face on the holiday is the patron saint of hypocracy, Nicolas of the North Pole who comforts thousands of children and adults in the lie that they were actually good enough this year, because no one ever deserves an empty tree at Christmas.
Ironically many Protestants are trying to keep the Christ in Christmas having never been to a mass in their lives, and having no clue that it has no historic or biblical connection to the birth if Christ.
I'll skip over to the one that strikes me as the most odd, Easter. Named for the pagan goddess of fertility Ishtar, or more familiar to our ears Ashtoreth. It's main sybolism is eggs and Bunny rabbits, even though it is supposedly based in the celebration of Christ's resurrection, which although it happened on a Sunday was conected to a set of Jewish holidays, which we conviniently ignore, instead fixing the date arbitrarily, also according to Catholic tradition.
Easter may seem like the quintessential Christian holiday, but even it's name is pagan, one we are not supposed it even mention:
"Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips. - Exodus 23:13
Where do these questions lead to? I am not sure. I think we need to learn to question everything and retain the good. We need to be on a constant lookout for ways to share the gospel, and we need to be very carefull to distinguish between tradition, and biblical truth.
How much of our theology, is based in passed traditions, inherited through syncretism of pagan and Catholic traditions, which may or may not have a useful way to get to the Gospel?
And how much time do we spend defending traditions and holidays that are not in the Bible, and are shaped more by various cultural histories than sound theology?
