Christian's & Holiday's
What
is A Holiday?
You might be asking yourself why I asked
such a silly question, and the answer is this, many people have no
idea what a holiday is. It even has several meanings in the
dictionary, one of which makes me question what a holiday is myself.
For example, one of the meanings is this, a day fixed by law or
custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of
some event or in honor of some person, or any day of exemption from
work. Now, in that big mouthful, if the word holiday is defined as
merely a day where one does not have to work, then what does that say
about our world.
To understand what a holiday is, we have to
look back to the Holy Days of the Old Testament.
Holy
Days of The Old Testament
There is also another meaning
of the word holiday, which is a religious feast day; a holy day, in
the Old Testament we hear of feast days, all in honor of God.
Seven
feasts were ordained by God for the Jews to celebrate and are located
in the 23rd chapter of the Book of Leviticus. These feasts were a
teaching tool for the Jews and also for the rest of us. Holy Days
reminded them of the blessings that God had given them over the years
and also of the promised Messiah who would be their Savior as well as
the Savior of all who believed in Him. The days of the seven feasts
were to be treated as Sabbath days, meaning it was a day of rest and
worshiping God.
The first feast commanded by God was the
Passover. This feast was instituted in Egypt on the night before the
Jews exodus (freedom) from Egypt.
The feast of Unleavened
Bread was celebrated for seven days and it began on the evening after
Passover. It is significant that the first and seventh days of the
feast of Unleavened Bread are annual Sabbaths or High Days.
The
third feast day was the feast of Firstfruits, and it occurred during
the same eight days as Passover and Unleavened Bread. The day of its
celebration was the day after the weekly Sabbath, and it was
celebrated by waving one sheaf (bundle) of the Firstfruits before the
Lord.
The forth feast is known as the day of Pentecost is
also called the feast of Weeks because it takes place seven weeks
after the feast of Firstfruits. It always occurs on the “morrow
after the seventh sabbath” so it always occurs on Sunday.
The
fifth feast is known as the Feast of Trumpets (i.e., Rosh Hashanah)
it is the first of the three feasts that occur in the fall of the
year. The Feast of Trumpets is a memorial of the grace extended by
God to Abraham when God substituted a ram to be sacrificed in place
of Abraham’s son, Isaac.
The sixth feast, the Day of
Atonement (Yom Kippur), is the most revered of Israel’s holy
days.
The feast of Tabernacles is the seventh and final feast
ordained by God for Israel to celebrate, the feast of Tabernacles was
a time of rejoicing and thanksgiving for the harvest that had been
gathered and the forgiveness that God had extended to the
people.
The reason I brought up these holy days is to show
that many of the religious feast days of yesterday are reflections of
what religious feasts we enjoy today, such as Thanksgiving,
Christmas, and Easter (Resurrection Sunday). There is no mention of
any observances or feast days in the New Testament, except for
Pentecost, but that does not mean that we cannot celebrate and
observe what Christ did for us just as they celebrated what God did
for them before He came.
It is my intention to create a page
detailing some of the well known Christian and non-Christian
holidays, to show their true meaning, not what the secular world has
come to know. Christians can observe holidays without destroying the
meaning of the holiday or our dignity as Christians.
Today's
Holy Days
As I was doing this research, something began
to disturb me, I noticed many Christian sites linking many holiday's
and observances to paganism, worshiping dead people, the devil, or
immorally wrong practices.
Who
actually associates Halloween and Valentine's Day with Christianity
anyway? This left me questioning whether or not I truly had the right
to even celebrate Christmas and if I did would I be dishonoring God
and committing sin.
After lots of procrastinating, which is a
sin, contemplating, and prayer I have come to one conclusion, Satan.
All this talk about how holiday's and observances being pagan, devil
worshiping, etc., is nothing other than the work of Satan. He has
corrupted the world with these secular holiday's and took the holy
out of the holy day, making us look bad for even saying Happy New
Year to someone if we are a Christian.
There are two types of
people on this earth, those who believe in Christ and those who do
not and the way we observe these holiday's has to do with which type
we choose to be, regardless of whether or not it is a holiday
specifically centering Christ or one that does not.
Those who
follow Christ will see a holy day centered around Christ and use it
to observe and reflect on Christ and to give thanks to God for all
that He has done for us, just as in the Old Testament. Those who do
not will find a worldly way in which to celebrate these as holiday's.
The same thing goes for holiday's that are not Christ centered, (New
Years, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, etc).
Now,
how many people of the world today do you suppose worship the devil
on Halloween or choose to gratify every lust of the flesh with as
many people as they can find on Valentine's Day? Even worldly people
do not know the true origin of these holidays, many of which changed
when brought to America, and while there may be some who have no
morals, most of them follow them in a way that appeals to the modern
world.
Naturally, if one were a true Christian, celebrating
these holiday's as the world would not even come to mind. I am a
member of one of the most conservative churches out there, yet we
provide a place for the kids to have fun on Halloween without being
corrupted by the world. Also, those who follow Christ (and stay close
to Him) will not be corrupted by the holiday's of the world or any
other things that the world has to offer. For weeks I did research on
evolution and false religions and if I was not following Christ I
could have easily been corrupted by what I have learned, but my
foundation is on Christ and as long as I stand on Him I will not fall
into the worlds view on things.
Now, I will be the first to
admit that the world has definitely screwed up the Christian holy
days, but to the true Christian we know what they are all about, but
to say that we are dishonoring God because we have a Christmas tree
in our house is just plain ridiculous. God knows who we are and what
our intentions are, He will tell us right from wrong. To say that any
of these holiday's are pagan related does not say much for the people
coming up with idea, so, the pagans have their own holidays, big
deal, let them have their holidays so we can enjoy our holy days. It
is the secular world and our wonderful so called Bible scholars whom
decided to combine the two and ruin it for all of us in the first
place.
What it all comes down to this, "Train
up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not
depart from it." -
Proverbs 22:6. If we teach our kids what is truth then they will not
question what the Christian holy day's are all about and when they
see something of the world they will not be corrupted by it. If we
teach them the truth and place them around people who follow Christ
they will not get corrupted by the world's view on these things. We
need to get back to celebrating and observing these days with Christ
in mind and I mean the true Christ, not some person people claim Him
to be.
Below you will find information on the most common
holiday's, I am not here to belittle a holiday, not all the holidays
featured here are necessarily Christian, but all are approached from
a Christian perspective. Like I said earlier, God knows your heart
and when you follow Christ you will not follow the traditions of the
world, but follow Him and observe these days as He would.
About
Christmas (coming soon)
Learn about the true reason
of why we are to observe Christmas and how some of these mythical
figures/objects came into play.
About
Easter (Resurrection Day) (coming soon)
Learn about
the true reason why we are to observe Easter, also known as Resurrection
Day, and about the Holy days leading up to Jesus death.
About
Thanksgiving (coming soon)
Learn about
Thanksgiving, how it originated, and the ways Christians give thanks
to God.
About Halloween (coming soon)
Can
Christians celebrate Halloween? Learn about alternative ways to
fellowship and spend time with your family on Halloween.
About
New Years Day (coming soon)
Learn about the history
of New Years Day celebrations and the ways Christians celebrate the
coming of the new year.
About
Valentine's Day (coming soon)
Learn about the
history of Valentine's Day and how Christians can celebrate the day of
love.
About St. Patrick's Day (coming soon)
Learn the history of St.
Patrick's Day and how Christians can participate in the day.
Forth
of July (Independence Day) (coming soon)
Learn the
history of Independence Day and how Christians celebrate their
independence in America.
