Holidays and Festivals

This is where I trying to begin to articulate my rethinking on holidays from the American calendar, the Christian calendar(s), and from the Hebrew calendar. Like most of the corners of this website, however, there is not much here yet. I hope to add a little rethink on each holiday as it ends. Since I’m writing this in mid-October, for now I’m just putting a link out for Sukkot. At the end of November I’ll plan to hopefully add a rethink for Thanksgiving.

Holidays make up such a big part of our lives. In some ways they help create some of the greatest joys and memories. It could be said that they help give order and some meaning to our lives to a substantial degree, could it not? They also can cause division among some of us who take “restoration” seriously. Many of the holidays I grew up celebrating in the USA have pagan backgrounds, secular and/or materialistic emphasis. Many restorationists declare war on the American holidays for those reasons and adopt the Hebrew/Jewish/Biblical holidays instead. If a holiday is supposed to be a holy day, what room is there to mix pagan and biblical? It’s a fair question!

American Holidays	Hebrew Holidays
Easter
	Rosh Hashanah — The Jewish New Year
Halloween
	Aseret Yemei Teshuva — Ten Days of Repentance
Christmas / Brumalia
	Yom Kippur — Day of Atonement
Thanksgiving
	Sukkot / Sukkoth / Tabernacles
Independence Day
	Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah
Superbowl Sunday
	Hanukkah — Festival of Lights
	Pesach — Passover
	Lag Ba'omer
	Shavuot — Feast of Weeks — Yom HaBikurim
	Rosh Chodesh — the New Month
	Shabbat — The Sabbath
	Acharei hachagim

I have struggled (and still struggle) with the pagan and secular and materialistic aspects of the American and Christian holidays. I have become attracted to many of the Hebrew/Biblical holidays. A big part of my attraction is understanding. I want to understand God better. It seems to me that the God who created and sustains this universe is the same God who works in history. And much of the most important work God does in human history seems to fit with the calendar and festivals He gave the Hebrews. It is questionable how much we can understand the stories about Yeshua/Jesus, for primary example, if we don’t have a basic understanding of the Hebrew Calendar which governed his days while he was on earth. It is also questionable how much we can understand what it is Jesus accomplished in the past and will accomplish in the future if we don’t understand the Hebrew Festivals.

But I’m not a hard-core rigorist about Hebrew festivals like some restorationists are. That tendency is for me nipped in the bud by some things that Rabbi Sha’ul wrote to the earliest communities of disciples.

Colossians 2:16-17

¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days - ¹⁷ these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ!

Romans 14

. . . do not have disputes over differing opinions. ² One person believes in eating everything, but the weak person eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats everything must not despise the one who does not, and the one who abstains must not judge the one who eats everything, for God has accepted him. ⁴ Who are you to pass judgment on another’s servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.  One person regards one day holier than other days, and another regards them all alike. Each must be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶ The one who observes the day does it for the Lord. . . why do you judge your brother or sister? . . . why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. . .  each of us will give an account of himself to God. . . Therefore we must not pass judgment on one another, but rather determine never to place an obstacle or a trap before a brother or sister.

So I’m going to do my best to lead me and my family in a way that will increase our understanding of the sovereignty of God in this world, increase our knowledge of what Jesus was doing on earth, and help us to try to live in harmony with God’s will and his plan. But I’m also trying to not be judgmental about those who feel the freedom to do things that I may not feel the freedom to do. So I don’t judge those who insist that Saturdays are an essential Shabbat to keep holy and I don’t judge those who prefer to make Sunday into the holy day, for example. I don’t judge those who practice Christmas and I don’t congratulate those who avoid it.

I’m just rethinking things for myself and I’m not trying to push my views on anyone. I want to be a father that gives his children a rich and meaningful calendar, joyous memories. Over time we’re more and more practicing Passover/Pescach rather than Easter. But our seder is not a totally traditional Jewish seder. We still practice a highly-sanitized form of Christmas and a cautious Thanksgiving. We’re starting to learn to practice Sukkoth. The rest we’re still learning as we go!