Re: Christian holidays . . . to celebrate or not to celebrate and how?
Well, this is an interesting thread. I find it enlightening that so many reject Easter and Xmas, espec. you Nikkip!
Gotta set the record straight about the early church though... the synchronisation of church with pagan beliefs was encouraged under the rule of Constantine (I saw a cross on a hill and thought that Christianity was the way to go Constantine). He did this because Christianity was growing in popularity and the Pagans were become less easy to control so these were born out of political expendiency. Constantine himself did a lot of nasty things to a lot of people during the time that he applauded Christianity and he finally was baptised on his death bed.
Go and look up some historical encyclopedias for a more detailed read about this period in history if you are interested. It is fascinating but it certainly wasn't a push by early church evangelists. I think the likes of Peter and Paul would have been dismayed by the blending of religions that occurred at that time in history.
Anyway, I'm with Nikkip... I don't like Easter and Xmas because of the Pagan roots but although we've tried in vain to avoid them the school system makes it very hard because they promote them so thoroughly. When Ds1 was born we thought we would be able to avoid the whole Santa thing but all you need is a child with a vivid imagination, loads of exposure to it and he thinks Santa is as real as his cat. Nothing we say would convince him otherwise. So, I guess sometimes we just have to roll with it and let them sort it all out for themselves when they are old enough to figure out what is real and what is not.
That said, last night we had a traditional Passover Seder at our church and it was just lovely! Never done that before but hope to do it again.
I think we need celebrations and commemorations in life to teach us and allow us time to reflect on the gift that life is. Hope you find something you can celebrate!
C