“We don’t celebrate Christmas.”
Those, my friends, are fighting words. Not on purpose, but I didn’t realize until a few years ago, when I began saying them. But man…traditions. There’s no comparison. I just sat here trying to think of one for like 10 minutes and came up empty handed.
I know that if we were religiously Jewish (Chanukah) or cultural African-Americans (Kwanza) it wouldn’t be a big deal. But since we’re neither (actually Jon is technically about 1/4 Jewish by blood, but we don’t claim it like it’s a thing), it seems like some take it as an offense that we don’t celebrate the same holidays they do, but have the same or similar beliefs as them.
Well let me start by saying, we definitely shouldn’t assume to think we know what another person believes unless we ask them. That aside, we have some really great reasons for our decision to not celebrate christmas, and instead celebrate…wait for it… the Feasts of the Lord!
My husband and I have been on a journey of faith that has led us to some interesting outcomes. I say outcomes, but these outcomes could change in the future to new outcomes. Some say people don’t change, but I don’t believe that. Our traditions and doctrines were challenged (we challenged ourselves…I like challenges okay?), and as we walked through these, we adjusted our actions as seemed necessary. I definitely didn’t expect it all to go this way, it just did. Sometimes you start down the rabbit hole just looking for a rabbit and end up in Wonderland. Well I’m in Wonderland and I’m going to go on the record saying that people can absolutely change.
So…Chanukah!
A semi-appropriate place to introduce our semi-unique traditions.
I loved christmas! Like many of you do. I made my own ornaments, got the tree, set the mood, purposely said "Merry CHRISTmas to everyone I knew. I even wrote a song about it. But the change happened about 3 1/2 years ago after watching this video recommended to us by very close friends. Honestly, I think it’s a very informative video, but I don’t recommend it. Particularly if you love Christmas. Don’t watch it unless you’re one of those people that likes having your beliefs and traditions thrown for a loop.
After ruining Christmas (and easter) for us, this video redeemed itself by introducing the idea of celebrating the Feasts of the Lord as read about in Leviticus 23. These “feasts” (not all about food - but some are! yum!) are all over the bible! Old and New Testaments alike. They are the “moedim” or “set times,” considered “holy convocations” or “rehearsals”, that the LORD gave Moses to give the Israelites to observe. I like calling them God’s Holidays. He set the dates and some guidelines to follow regarding them and said to celebrate them.
Side note: I don’t know why people bash Leviticus. I find it scintillating.
Anyway, we decided we would celebrate those instead. You may recognize some. There are 7 of them.
Passover (Pesach)
Unleavened Bread
First Fruits
Shavuot
Trumpets (Yom Teruah)
Day of Atonement
Tabernacles (Sukkot)
As they approach next year I’ll focus on each one specifically for your reading pleasure. But for now we happen upon…Chanukah! And No! It is not a Feast of the Lord. But we still celebrate it?! Yes! It’s totally a Jewish thing. Mostly it’s just so we have something to do while everyone we know is celebrating Christmas. The story behind it is pretty cool too if you like stories of the religiously oppressed fighting for freedom and miracles of temple candle oil mysteriously burning for 7 days longer than it should have allowing for lawful rededication.
I have a lot to learn about Chanukah regarding specifics, but if you’re like “Chanukah isn’t biblical” I’ll say “Well Jesus celebrated it” (a common name for it is Festival of Lights, see John 10:22).
Anyway, I don’t want to get down on your Christmas celebrations, so I won’t. But just know I’m not celebrating Chanukah just to be alternative or rebel against my childhood…that’s not my gig. I have great Christmas memories and most of our family thinks our decision is some temporary fling with “finding ourselves” or something. It’s totally not a fling, and the main reason we don’t do Christmas (or easter or eat unclean things) is because we feel compelled not to, and with much more complicated explanations, believe there is great value in obeying the Torah (the “law of God”) even today. I may not have graduated from bible college, but I assure you, the studying on this end has been extensive. I have heard every christian argument (because I needed convincing myself!), and I can give you a great or reasonable answer for every one. It's just a matter of "going there."
Update: I realize this is probably more geared toward christian readers and the inquisitive. So if you don't already read the bible or take an interest it may not be of much interest to you. Just a heads up.
Even if you never give up christmas or easter or other traditions, I highly recommend diving into the feasts of the Lord, and giving them a shot. Stories in the New Testament are rich with Feast references, and understanding why they were celebrating them and when will begin to completely blow your mind. Jesus celebrated them and happened to make all his big moves on feast days (die, burial, resurrection:::Passover, Unleavened Bread, Feast of First fruits). The holy spirit even joined in the fun 50 days later and appeared in full force on the day of Pentecost (Shavuot, the feast of weeks). Sooooo, maybe we should be paying attention to God’s holidays after all?
I don’t know. Yes I do! I think we should pay attention, personally, but I think every person needs to figure that one out for themselves. The worst it will do is deepen your understanding of Jesus and enrich your faith.
Let me end with this. I’m not giving a lot of details here. That’s because I’m not going to be the person to change your mind. If you’re curious why christmas isn’t in the bible but everyone celebrates it…and why these feasts sound like something you should know about, but you know hardly anything about them for [some] reason…you will go find it out for yourself.
I’ll just say this. In Exodus when the Israelites get snapped at for worshipping the golden calf, re-read that. OK Fine. I’ll do it for you.
Exodus 32:4-6
“4 He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “[b]This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 5 Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” 6 So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. “
(Italics/bold/underline, mine)
I highlighted that because of what it insinuates. I don’t know about you, but I was never taught this story the way I’m about to tell you. I was always told the Israelites got docked because they were worshipping the golden calf. But check that bold part out. They were having a feast to the (capital) LORD. When Lord is capitalized, it’s well known that that means its referring to YHWH in the Hebrew, the Israelites one true God. So Aaron isn’t saying, lets have a feast to this new golden calf we just made. The Israelites think they are worshipping YHWH through this pagan cultural tradition (idol) which they had spent their entire lives thinking was the norm. Like Moses had been their mediator (who they thought died on the mountain after being up there so long), this golden calf became their new mediator to YHWH. God wasn’t pissed at their intentions. He was pissed that they used pagan ways to worship him after he just redeemed their butts from slavery in Egypt and it’s idolatrous culture.
Maybe that will spark your curiosity. It was a good starting point for me. Then on to Wonderland.
Told you I would write about more than oils!
Here’s some starting resources
a good BOOK
a youtube vid
Shaloha!
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