40.9 F
Spokane
Monday, April 14, 2025
spot_img
HomeCommentaryAsk An Atheist: Do you celebrate religious holidays?

Ask An Atheist: Do you celebrate religious holidays?

Date:

spot_img

Related stories

At St. Gertrude the Paschal flame ignites a deeper faith

At St. Gertrude, Holy Week and Benedictine vows mirror Christ’s love, sacrifice and resurrection through rich, symbolic rituals.

Let our better ‘ships’ rise with us

Greed sank great ships of bipartisan-ship, citizen-ship and others. With courage, we can raise them and sail toward something better and rise again!

Sociologist’s new book explains why organized religion has lost relevancy

Organized religion isn't just declining. It has become culturally obsolete. So says Christian Smith in his newest book, "Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America."

For Jews traumatized by Oct. 7, Passover Seder is a model for how to process it

Learn how Jews can use the Passover Seder as a way to reframe their Oct. 7 trauma through the ritual's ceremony, transforming its horror into a story of hope and renewal.

Protect public schools: Keep religious instruction — and its cover-ups — out.

This column communicates how church abuse scandals don’t belong in public schools. Religious instruction and its cover-ups need to stay out of classrooms.

Our Sponsors

spot_img

What do you want to Ask an Atheist? Submit your questions online or fill out the form below.

By Jim Downard

Do you celebrate “religious” holidays like Easter, Valentine’s Day and Christmas? Why? Why not?

SPO_House-ad_Ask-an-atheist_0425133My secular family has always put up Christmas trees, and I’ve been a carol fan from the get go (religious ones just as much as non).  By the way, one of best albums is the one Leonard Bernstein & NY Philharmonic did with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Christmas is too fun of a time to leave it to Christians to monopolize. And countries like Japan enjoy the practice too without any of its religious connotations being endorsed.

 

Easter was less important, though did do the egg coloring thing as a kid, and chomping on chocolate bunnies.  Valentine’s day less important still.
It’s interesting you didn’t mention Halloween, which also had religious roots but has been so overlayed It’s interesting you didn’t mention Halloween, which also had religious roots but has been so overlayed with secular practices that many forget that (though would be more noticeable in other countries where the Christian religious calendar is more actively followed culturally.

Jim Downard
Jim Downard
Jim Downard is a Spokane native (with a sojourn in Southern California back in the early 1960s) who was raised in a secular family, so says had no personal faith to lose. He's always been a history and science buff (getting a bachelor's in the former area at what was then Eastern Washington University in the early 1970s).

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img
spot_img
spot_img
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest


0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
spot_img
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x