Why Don’T Jews Celebrate Christmas?

What religions do not celebrate Christmas?

People who don’t celebrate Christmas IN THE Catholic Church calendar, the “octave” of Christmas ends on the eighth day after Christmas, which is January 1st, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Christmas is a Solemnity, so it is not celebrated for just 24 hours.

1. It is given the honor of eight days (octave) of celebration which is a custom that traces its roots to Old Testament feasts.
2. There are countries and denominations who don’t celebrate Christmas.
3. Christmas is just another day.
4. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas.
5. Why not? First, Jesus commanded that we commemorate his death, not his birth — Luke 22:19, 20.

Second, Jesus’ apostles and early disciples did not celebrate Christmas. Third, there is no proof that Jesus was born on December 25; His birth date is not recorded in the Bible. Fourth, they believe that Christmas is not approved by God because it is rooted in pagan customs and rites — 2 Corinthians 6:17.

They likewise don’t celebrate Labor Day, New Year’s, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving. Their only observance is an annual memorial service to commemorate the death of Jesus Christ. When he gave the memorial of his death, Jesus said, “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” So he wanted us to remember his death, not his birth.

Most religions like Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism don’t recognize Christmas and Easter as they are ancient Christian festivals so the only religion to celebrate Christmas and Easter is Christianity. To the Jews, it is easy to understand why they do not celebrate Christmas.

• For 2,000 years, Jews have rejected the Christian idea of Jesus as messiah.
• He was just a prophet.
• To them, Jesus did not fulfill the Messianic prophesies which are: Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28); Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6); Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease as it says “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4); Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one as it says that “God will be King over all the world—on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One” (Zechariah 14:9).

In the Muslim world, Christmas is not celebrated publicly, except in the minority Christian communities in the Middle East, but in North Africa – none at all. There are no Christmas trees or decorations. There are no Christmas dinners or reading of Christmas stories.

Turn on the TV or the radio, and you will not find Christmas programs. There is no “Christmas spirit” at all! Quite depressing for a Christian living in these parts of the world. In North Africa, for example, Christmas is commonly viewed as a “European” holiday where there are big parties, with feasting and drinking.

They see it as a pagan festival with roots in ancient Rome. The Biblical message of the Incarnation does not seem to be getting through. While the story of the birth of Christ is actually related in the Qur’an, in Sura 19:16-35, the story is given a very different slant.

The Virgin Mary is told by an angel that she will give birth to a “pure” son, “as a sign unto men and a mercy from us.” She withdraws to a desert place to give birth, alone, under a palm-tree, then returns with the infant to her people. When they chide her, supposing she has been unchaste, Jesus speaks up from the cradle in her defense, announcing himself to be a prophet.

The passage concludes by denouncing the Christian doctrine of the incarnation, misinterpreted grossly: “Such is Jesus, son of Mary, the statement of truth about which they dispute. It is not befitting for God to father a Son.” Hindus revere and recognize Jesus as a Prema-Avatar of Divine Love because many of his teachings were about finding the God within and service to our fellow man.

• They do not celebrate Christmas only Diwali (Festival of the Lights) and New Year.
• A festival called Pancha Ganapati is celebrated for five days of gift-giving and festivities within the home especially for children to the five-faced elephant God.
• The festival runs from December 21 through the 25th.
• It is a time for outings, picnics, feasts, exchange of cards and gifts.

Each day a tray of sweets, fruits and incense is offered to Pancha Ganapati. The festival calls for making amends, forgiveness and apologies. There is the settling of debts and disputes. Love and harmony is extolled and charity and loving presence fill the homes and hearts which is very Christian in essence.

1. Although Buddhists do not practice the same rituals as Christians during Christmas time, some do celebrate the spirit of Christmas.
2. Like Christians, Buddhists believe that love, kindness and peace are all things to celebrate.
3. Since the Buddhist teachings are all about peace and goodwill toward mankind Christmas is a time when Buddhists can focus on some of the similarities between their religion and Christianity.

They enjoy decorating their temples with what most would recognize as Christmas decorations. They send and receive cards from loved ones. They hold vigils late at night and light candles. Some even listen to Christmas music. To us Catholics, Christmas is about Jesus, the birth of our Redeemer.

We gift gifts to our loved ones and share our blessings because we honor our Savior this way. Disclaimer SunStar website welcomes friendly debate, but comments posted on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of the SunStar management and its affiliates. SunStar reserves the right to delete, reproduce, or modify comments posted here without notice.

Posts that are inappropriate will automatically be deleted. Forum Rules Do not use obscenity. Some words have been banned. Stick to the topic. Do not veer away from the discussion. Be coherent. Do not shout or use CAPITAL LETTERS! : People who don’t celebrate Christmas

Why is Christmas is not celebrated in the Bible?

Christmas is on Dec.25, but it wasn’t always. Dec.25 is not the date mentioned in the Bible as the day of Jesus’s birth; the Bible is actually silent on the day or the time of year when Mary was said to have given birth to him in Bethlehem. The earliest Christians did not celebrate his birth.

As a result, there are a number of different accounts as to how and when Dec.25 became known as Jesus’s birthday. By most accounts, the birth was first thought — in around 200 A.D. — to have taken place on Jan.6. Why? Nobody knows, but it may have been the result of “a calculation based on an assumed date of crucifixion of April 6 coupled with the ancient belief that prophets died on the same day as their conception,” according to religionfacts.com,

By the mid-4th century, the birthday celebration had been moved to Dec.25. Who made the decision? Some accounts say it was the pope; others say it wasn’t. One of the prevalent theories on why Christmas is Dec.25 was spelled out in ” The Golden Bough,” a highly influential 19th century comparative study of religion and mythology written by the anthropologist Sir James George Frazer and originally published in 1890.

The first edition was titled “The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion”; the second edition was called “The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion.” By the third printing, in the early 20th century, it was published in 12 volumes, though there are abridged one-volume versions.) Frazer approached the topic of religion from a cultural — not theological — perspective, and he linked the dating of Christmas to earlier pagan rituals.

Here’s what the 1922 edition of the “The Golden Bough” says about the origins of Christmas, as published on Bartleby.com : An instructive relic of the long struggle is preserved in our festival of Christmas, which the Church seems to have borrowed directly from its heathen rival.

• In the Julian calendar the twenty-fifth of December was reckoned the winter solstice, and it was regarded as the Nativity of the Sun, because the day begins to lengthen and the power of the sun to increase from that turning-point of the year.
• The ritual of the nativity, as it appears to have been celebrated in Syria and Egypt, was remarkable.

The celebrants retired into certain inner shrines, from which at midnight they issued with a loud cry, “The Virgin has brought forth! The light is waxing!” The Egyptians even represented the new-born sun by the image of an infant which on his birthday, the winter solstice, they brought forth and exhibited to his worshippers.

1. No doubt the Virgin who thus conceived and bore a son on the twenty-fifth of December was the great Oriental goddess whom the Semites called the Heavenly Virgin or simply the Heavenly Goddess; in Semitic lands she was a form of Astarte.
2. Now Mithra was regularly identified by his worshippers with the Sun, the Unconquered Sun, as they called him; hence his nativity also fell on the twenty-fifth of December.

The Gospels say nothing as to the day of Christ’s birth, and accordingly the early Church did not celebrate it. In time, however, the Christians of Egypt came to regard the sixth of January as the date of the Nativity, and the custom of commemorating the birth of the Saviour on that day gradually spread until by the fourth century it was universally established in the East.

1. But at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century the Western Church, which had never recognised the sixth of January as the day of the Nativity, adopted the twenty-fifth of December as the true date, and in time its decision was accepted also by the Eastern Church.
2. At Antioch the change was not introduced till about the year 375 A.D.

What considerations led the ecclesiastical authorities to institute the festival of Christmas? The motives for the innovation are stated with great frankness by a Syrian writer, himself a Christian. “The reason,” he tells us, “why the fathers transferred the celebration of the sixth of January to the twenty-fifth of December was this.

1. It was a custom of the heathen to celebrate on the same twenty-fifth of December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity.
2. In these solemnities and festivities the Christians also took part.
3. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day and the festival of the Epiphany on the sixth of January.

Accordingly, along with this custom, the practice has prevailed of kindling fires till the sixth.” The heathen origin of Christmas is plainly hinted at, if not tacitly admitted, by Augustine when he exhorts his Christian brethren not to celebrate that solemn day like the heathen on account of the sun, but on account of him who made the sun.

1. In like manner Leo the Great rebuked the pestilent belief that Christmas was solemnised because of the birth of the new sun, as it was called, and not because of the nativity of Christ.
2. Thus it appears that the Christian Church chose to celebrate the birthday of its Founder on the twenty-fifth of December in order to transfer the devotion of the heathen from the Sun to him who was called the Sun of Righteousness.

Yet an account titled “How December 25 Became Christmas” on the Biblical Archaeology Society’s Web site takes some issue with this theory: Despite its popularity today, this theory of Christmas’s origins has its problems. It is not found in any ancient Christian writings, for one thing.

Christian authors of the time do note a connection between the solstice and Jesus’ birth: The church father Ambrose (c.339–397), for example, described Christ as the true sun, who outshone the fallen gods of the old order. But early Christian writers never hint at any recent calendrical engineering; they clearly don’t think the date was chosen by the church.

Rather they see the coincidence as a providential sign, as natural proof that God had selected Jesus over the false pagan gods. Furthermore, it says, the first mentions of a date for Christmas, around 200 A.D., were made at a time when “Christians were not borrowing heavily from pagan traditions of such an obvious character.” It was in the 12th century, it says, that the first link between the date of Jesus’s birth and pagan feasts was made.

1. It says in part: Clearly there was great uncertainty, but also a considerable amount of interest, in dating Jesus’ birth in the late second century.
2. By the fourth century, however, we find references to two dates that were widely recognized — and now also celebrated — as Jesus’ birthday: December 25 in the western Roman Empire and January 6 in the East (especially in Egypt and Asia Minor).

The modern Armenian church continues to celebrate Christmas on January 6; for most Christians, however, December 25 would prevail, while January 6 eventually came to be known as the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the arrival of the magi in Bethlehem.

The period between became the holiday season later known as the 12 days of Christmas. The earliest mention of December 25 as Jesus’ birthday comes from a mid-fourth-century Roman almanac that lists the death dates of various Christian bishops and martyrs. The first date listed, December 25, is marked: natus Christus in Betleem Judeae : “Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea ” So, almost 300 years after Jesus was born, we finally find people observing his birth in mid-winter.” Bottom line: Nobody knows for sure why Dec.25 is celebrated as Christmas.

—- Here’s a little more history, this on the non-religious figure of Santa Claus. According to the St. Nicolas Center (whose Web site has a subtitle: “Discovering the Truth About Santa Claus”), the character known today as Santa originated with a man named Nicolas said to have been born in the 3rd century A.D.

• In the village of Patara, then Greek and now Turkish.
• It is said his parents died when he was young and that the religious Nicolas, who was raised by his uncle, was left a fortune.
• Ordained as a priest, he used his money to help others and become a protector of children, performing miracles to help them.

He was, the center says, persecuted by Roman Emperor Diocletian and buried in 343 A.D. in a church, where a substance with healing powers, called manna, formed in his grave. The day of his death, Dec.6, became a day of celebration. How did this man seen as a saint become Santa Claus, the one with the red suit and white beard? The St.

1. Nicolas Center says Europeans honored him as a saint over the centuries, while St.
2. Nicolas was brought to the New World by Columbus, who named a Haitian port for him in 1492.
3. According to the center: After the American Revolution, New Yorkers remembered with pride their colony’s nearly-forgotten Dutch roots.

John Pintard, the influential patriot and antiquarian who founded the New York Historical Society in 1804, promoted St. Nicholas as patron saint of both society and city. In January 1809, Washington Irving joined the society and on St. Nicholas Day that same year, he published the satirical fiction, Knickerbocker’s History of New York, with numerous references to a jolly St.

Nicholas character. This was not the saintly bishop, rather an elfin Dutch burgher with a clay pipe. These delightful flights of imagination are the source of the New Amsterdam St. Nicholas legends: that the first Dutch emigrant ship had a figurehead of St. Nicholas; that St. Nicholas Day was observed in the colony; that the first church was dedicated to him; and that St.

Nicholas comes down chimneys to bring gifts. Irving’s work was regarded as the “first notable work of imagination in the New World.” The New York Historical Society held its first St. Nicholas anniversary dinner on December 6, 1810. John Pintard commissioned artist Alexander Anderson to create the first American image of Nicholas for the occasion.

• Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children’s treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace.
• The accompanying poem ends, “Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend! To serve you ever was my end, If you will, now, me something give, I’ll serve you ever while I live.”,1821 brought some new elements with publication of the first lithographed book in America, the Children’s Friend,

This “Sante Claus” arrived from the North in a sleigh with a flying reindeer. The anonymous poem and illustrations proved pivotal in shifting imagery away from a saintly bishop. Sante Claus fit a didactic mode, rewarding good behavior and punishing bad, leaving a “long, black birchen rod,

directs a Parent’s hand to use when virtue’s path his sons refuse.” Gifts were safe toys, “pretty doll, peg-top, or a ball; no crackers, cannons, squibs, or rockets to blow their eyes up, or their pockets. No drums to stun their Mother’s ear, nor swords to make their sisters fear; but pretty books to store their mind with knowledge of each various kind.” The sleigh itself even sported a bookshelf for the “pretty books.” The book also notably marked S.

Claus’ first appearance on Christmas Eve, rather than December 6th. Then, in 1823, the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” later known as “The Night Before Christmas,” became popular, and the modern version of the plump Santa started to become established, what his sleigh led by reindeer and the chimney as his delivery system.

By the 1920s, a jolly red-suited Santa was depicted in drawings of Norman Rockwell and other illustrators, and by the 1950s, he was portrayed as a gentle gift-giving character. That Santa became the one kids in the United States and other parts of the world know today, though in many other countries, St.

Nicholas — not Santa — is still celebrated as well. Was Nicolas real? The bottom line from the Web site on Santa: Some say St. Nicholas existed only in legend, without any reliable historical record. Legends usually do grow out of real, actual events, though they may be embellished to make more interesting stories.

• Many of the St.
• Nicholas stories seem to be truth interwoven with imagination.
• However, facts of the life of St.
• Nicholas could contain some part of historical truth.
• They provide a clear sense of his personal characteristics which are further elaborated in other narratives.
• You can read about those “facts” here in a piece titled, “Was St.

Nicolas a Real Person?”) So there you have it. Some history of Christmas you may not have known before. If you made it this far, now you do.

Do Muslims celebrate Christmas?

American Muslims and the Christmas holiday During his college years when my younger son returned from his retail job, he would often be humming, “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” which happens to me one of my favorites. This and many other similar Christmas jingles are playing all over America this time of year in shopping malls, restaurants, coffee shops and offices.

1. Right after Thanksgiving, Christmas decorations are lit all over the country and almost every household, business, shopping mall have decorated Christmas trees on display.
2. Flashing sales are on to attract the holiday buyers.
3. The sweet aromas of chocolate, caramel, peppermint, pumpkin spice and cinnamon flavor surrounds you everywhere.

All of this is very hard to resist, or even ignore. Living in America for over a decade I have always noticed that many American cultural traditions and holidays raise ambiguities between Muslim communities. The Christmas holiday season particularly is challenging for many American Muslims because of the religious interpretation of Jesus (peace be upon him).

1. The significant differences of Jesus’s place in Christianity and Islam makes most of the Muslims in America uncomfortable to participate and celebrate.
2. Many Muslims feel that by celebrating, or even acknowledging the Christmas holiday, they are going against their monotheistic belief.
3. Jesus, son of Mary (peace be upon him) known as Isa ibn, Maryam is a revered prophet in Islam.

Like Christianity, Muslims also believe Jesus (peace be upon him) to be the Messiah. In fact his mother, Mary, is the only woman mentioned in the Quran with a chapter dedicated to her name. In addition to my own observations, I decided to get a better understanding of my fellow Muslim Americans sentiments by conducting a brief survey.

21% decorate a Christmas tree and 79% do not37% listen to Christmas music and 63% do not44% exchange gifts and 56% do not49% attend Christmas parties and 51% do not94% take advantage of many discounts offered by the retailers and 6% do not.

I was especially curious to learn if they avoid the holiday season altogether or embrace it by creating their own traditions. The level of participation varied. Twenty-eight (28%) said they completely avoid the many activities of the holiday season. Thirteen (13%) said they fully embrace it and 22% make their own traditions.

Twenty-one (21%) neither avoid, participate nor make their own traditions.While some avoid it, some celebrate it in their own way within Muslim terms. Some said that their Islamic views and beliefs are not threatened by simply celebrating any holiday. Some participants felt that in this season of giving they love contributing with their non-Muslim fellow Americans.

Some felt they embrace it feeling it is a great opportunity to show their children how to love and respect other beliefs as holiday celebrations are reflection of cultures. To my surprise, while researching this topic I discovered there are many majority Muslim countries, especially in the Middle East with diverse religious population that celebrate Christmas.

There is no better place to witness the co-existence of Christians and Muslims during Christmas time than the Middle Eastern countries themselves. This makes perfect sense since Middle East is the birthplace of Jesus (peace be upon him). Christmas is considered both religious as well as a secular event to celebrate.

Countries including Egypt, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Palestine decorate Christmas trees, illuminate buildings and streets, have holiday parties, exchange gifts with Christian family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Bosnia-Herzegovina is another great example of interfaith co-existence.

• I visited Sarajevo during the Christmas season and witnessed this phenomenon for myself.
• Many Muslim countries including those I have mentioned have interfaith families, so they not only celebrate Christmas but Muslim holidays like Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha as well.
• Growing up in Pakistan I had Christian class fellows, friends, co-workers and helpers.

Here in America, I have an interfaith family. We get together on Christmas evening, share a nice meal and exchange gifts. In my opinion soon our children or their children will be the first-generation immigrants, so it is imperative to work on inclusivity.

1. We can show them how they can integrate through these holidays and at the same time make their own traditions.
2. Christmas in America is celebrated both religiously and secularly so being a part of it does not make us go against our belief.
3. We can simply join our fellow Americans in their joy by eating together or exchanging gifts.

Islam is a multicultural and multiethnic religion. Integration is one of the many reasons why it was able to spread from the Arabian Peninsula to the rest of the world. Integration and participation in any cultural traditions and holidays is a great way to bridge the gap between communities.

• It gives us a chance to embrace diversity by learning about other cultures and faiths.
• This is also a great time to share our own culture and faith.
• I feel we can integrate better by being a part of everyone joy as this gives us a bigger opportunity to share our own! Maimoona Harrington was born and raised in Pakistan moved to the United States with her family in 2008.

She is married and a mother of two sons. She has a bachelor’s degree in Islamic studies and sociology from Pakistan and a bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies from United States. Along with her career as an interpreter, translator and monitor she is also an Islamic and Pakistani Culture Adviser.

Do Jews celebrate Christmas?

Do Jews celebrate Christmas? No. We do not (at least not in the religious sense). But did you know that there are several Jewish connections to the holiday? First: Christmas is not a Jewish holiday at all. Not even close (and before you ask, no Hanukkah is not a Jewish version of Christmas).

When was Jesus’s actual birthday?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth of Jesus

Nativity by Robert Campin ( c.  1420 ), depicting the birth of Jesus Christ during Spring
Date	6 to 3 BC

The date of birth of Jesus is not stated in the gospels or in any historical sources, but most biblical scholars generally accept a date of birth between 6 BC and 4 BC, the year in which King Herod died. The historical evidence is too incomplete to allow a definitive dating, but the year is estimated through three different approaches:

• analysing references to known historical events mentioned in the nativity accounts in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew,
• working backward from the estimation of the start of the ministry of Jesus, and
• astrological or astronomical alignments.

The common Christian traditional dating of the birthdate of Jesus was 25 December, a date first asserted officially by Pope Julius I in 350 AD, although this claim is dubious or otherwise unfounded. The day or season has been estimated by various methods, including the description of shepherds watching over their sheep.

Is Christmas only Christianity?

December 25, 2018 – Christmas – Christmas is a Christian religious holiday, and an American federal holiday observed on December 25 of each year, However, many people of other faiths celebrate Christmas in a non-religious context. Christians celebrate this day as the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God, on December 25.

Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7. In the 4th century, church officials decided to start celebrating the birth of Jesus. However, the bible did not state the date of Jesus’s birth. Around this time, the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. Before this, Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a winter festival, celebrated in late December.

Saturnalia involved a week-long feast and celebration. One part of the celebration was giving each other gifts. Read more about Saturnalia here, When the Emperor converted, many Saturnalia customs were absorbed into the Roman Christmas celebrations, A few years later, Pope Julius I chose December 25 as the official date for the celebration of Jesus’s birth.

The drinking, feasting, and giving of presents led many to believe that Christmas was not really a religious holiday, Puritans in New England and in England banned its observance because they believed it was not a religious holiday, From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and you could be fined for celebrating it,

It wasn’t until the 1800s that Americans began to embrace Christmas. Americans changed the holiday from a community party holiday into a family-centered day of peace, One of the reasons why Christmas became popular at this time is that there was a lot of tension between classes.

• During this conflict, Washington Irving wrote The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, gent.
• A series of stories about the celebration of Christmas,
• The stories featured a wealthy man who invited peasants into his home for the holiday.
• This created the idea that Christmas should be a warm holiday that brings all classes together,

Also around this time, A Christmas Carol was published, which also had a message about being charitable at Christmas, These books inspired the American people, and demonstrated the benefits of celebrating the holiday, To request more information about our rare books editions of the aforementioned books, please email [email protected],

Learn more about our rare books department here, You can check out other editions of these books here: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent A Christmas Carol In 1870, Christmas was declared a federal holiday. Over the next 100 years, the American Christmas tradition evolved to include parts of other customs,

This included decorating trees, sending holiday cards, and giving gifts. Some of these customs come from the pagan celebration of Yule ( read more about Yule here ). Old Yule customs often had people place branches of evergreen trees in their homes. That tradition turned into placing whole trees into homes.

1. Many Americans celebrate Christmas by putting up a Christmas tree in their home.
2. They will decorate the tree with ornaments and lights.
3. Families who celebrate typically place wrapped presents under the tree, to be opened on the morning of December 25,
4. Those who are Christian may attend church the night before, and some may attend that day.

The service will typically include a retelling of Jesus’s birth. Some workplaces, friends, and families also celebrate the holiday with games involving presents. Two of these games are Secret Santa and Yankee Swap/White Elephant. Learn more about the origins of this holiday: Pagan Christmas The Origins of Christmas If there’s a particular celebration you or someone you know participates in that we missed, let us know by leaving a comment on this post.

What Quran says about Christmas?

Far-right parties in the West often portray Islam as at war with Christianity. What gets lost in the white noise is a key fact: Jesus is an important figure for Muslims, too. The Quran explicitly makes mention of Jesus, one of 26 prophets named in the Muslim holy book.

• A Quranic passage referring to the creation of a representational object is a statement attributed to Jesus.
• It goes as follows: “Indeed I have come to you with a sign from your Lord; I shall create for you from clay in the form of a bird; I shall blow into it and it will become a bird, by God’s leave.” Prophet Mohammad, too, is said to have been very respectful of Jesus and his mother Mary.

When he entered the Kaaba, at the time it was a pre-Islamic pagan shrine in Mecca, the Prophet is said to have destroyed all the images of gods but allowed a painting of the Virgin and infant Jesus to remain. There are varying accounts of how he protected that painting.

• Some say he covered it with his hands; others that he directed it to be left intact.
• The painting was lost when a fire destroyed the building in 683, barely half-a-century after it had been saved by Prophet Mohammad.
• The story offers not just a wholesome but a holistic perspective of the Muslim faith’s approach to the icons of other religions and it challenges the politically mischievous assertion that there is an inherent incompatibility between Islam and Christianity.

Consider this: ** Jesus, Mary and the angel Gabriel are all in the Quran. Jesus is called “Isa” in Arabic and Mary is “Maryam.” ** Muslims believe that Isa is a prophet of God but not flesh of his flesh or the son of God as Christians do. ** Maryam is the only female figure to have a Quranic chapter named after her.

** Muslims say “peace be upon him” when they refer to Jesus, just as they do with Mohammad and other prophets. ** The Christmas story is told in the Quran with a sense of wonder at the miracle wrought by God. It goes as follows: “And remember Mary in the Book, when she withdrew from her family to an eastern place.

And she veiled herself from them. Then We sent unto her Our Spirit, and it assumed for her the likeness of a perfect man. She said, ‘I seek refuge from thee in the Compassionate, if you are reverent” He said, ‘I am but a messenger of thy Lord, to bestow upon thee a pure boy.’ “She said, ‘How shall I have a boy when no man has touched me, nor have I been unchaste?’ He said, ‘Thus shall it be.

1. Thy Lord says, “It is easy for Me.” And that We might make him a sign unto mankind, and a mercy from Us.
2. And it is a matter decreed.
3. So she conceived him and withdrew with him to a place far off.
4. And the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date palm.
5. She said, ‘Would that I had died before this and was a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten!’ So he called out to her from below her, ‘Grieve not! Thy Lord has placed a rivulet beneath thee.

And shake towards thyself the trunk of the date palm; fresh, ripe dates shall fall upon thee. So eat and drink and cool thine eye. And if thou seest any human being, say, ‘Verily I have vowed a fast unto the Compassionate, so I shall not speak this day to any man’.’ “Then she came with him unto her people, carrying him.

They said, ‘O Mary! Thou hast brought an amazing thing! O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not an evil man, nor was thy mother unchaste.’ Then she pointed to him, They said, ‘How shall we speak to one who is yet a child in the cradle?’ “He said, ‘Truly I am a servant of God. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet.

He has made me blessed wheresoever I may be and has enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving so long as I live, and dutiful towards my mother. And He has not made me domineering, wretched. Peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised alive!'” Merry Christmas.

Do Buddhists celebrate Christmas?

As the fall semester comes to a close, it’s hard to keep count of all of the Christmas decorations that have popped up around Princeton’s campus. On a brisk day in November, I was walking by McCarter Theatre when I noticed it had been decorated with giant Christmas wreaths.

I took out my phone to snap a picture, but decided against it. Instead, I kept walking, fleeing the wind that cut through my jacket. To some students, Christmas decorations may spark excitement for the holiday season. For me, a second-generation immigrant who was raised Buddhist, they remind me of my complicated relationship with mainstream American culture.

My parents immigrated to America from South Korea. My mother is Buddhist, like her mother before her, and my father, like most Koreans, is areligious, Growing up, when most of my friends were decorating their houses for the holidays, my childhood home in Chicago remained unchanged.

• Appearances, however, don’t tell the full story.
• Contrary to popular belief, many Buddhists do participate in the holiday season.
• Among Asian American Buddhists, three-quarters celebrate Christmas,
• On Dec.8, some Buddhists also observe Bodhi Day, which marks when the Buddha reached enlightenment.
• Even if they don’t celebrate Christmas, many American Buddhists borrow Christmas traditions and make them their own.

My family usually takes in a special dinner, and up until I was six or seven, my parents used to hide presents under my bed on Christmas. Still, even as a child, I knew that these practices were the result of some compromise. I now understand that my parents were trying to expose me to American culture while fending off complete assimilation.

• To this day, my mother insists that our family doesn’t celebrate Christmas, sometimes even as we’re carving up a ham at the dinner table.
• Though many people may consider this statement to be a contradiction, in a way, it fits perfectly in the strange logic of my bicultural upbringing.
• Outside of my family, however, it is hard to find people who understand this logic.

During elementary school, some students reacted in pity and shock when I told them I no longer received gifts during the holiday season. They couldn’t fathom why my parents would deprive me of presents and why I didn’t see the supposed injustice in their actions.

One year, a girl offered to share her holiday gifts with me; I declined, though I was tempted. I don’t blame them for their ignorance, however. Though Protestants, Catholics, and Buddhists are all sizable religious groups in South Korea, most Korean Americans are Protestant, Perhaps my classmates assumed I was like some other Korean person they knew.

Yet, I was still irked by their incredulity at the fact that I wasn’t. In high school, I encountered a different dynamic: my friends’ nostalgia for past holiday seasons. As winter break approached, my peers would often reminisce together about their Christmas memories: dinner at Grandma’s, the lake house, Cancún.

I would listen and nod, taking in their excitement, but always feeling more like an observer than an active participant. At times, this nostalgia made my peers blind to prejudice. In the days leading up to winter break, my health class watched the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story.” In the film, after a series of mishaps, a white family decides to eat Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

The interaction that ensues makes a mockery of immigrants. Among other questionable moments, it features a group of East Asian waiters performing “Deck the Halls” in the fictional accent that exists only to disparage people like me. Watching the scene, I felt a tiny knot form in my chest, the same irritation I feel when a professor mistakes me for some other East Asian student or when I see the “Buddha sandwich” on the Tower Club’s menu.

• It’s a faint feeling, dulled over time, but it persists.
• After class, I told some friends how I felt about the movie scene.
• They seemed sympathetic but mostly dismissed it as a product of a bygone era as if belittling depictions of Asian Americans and our cultures are simple history.
• They’re not, but romanticizing the past and present of Christian hegemony can make people forget what’s right in front of them.

However, despite my negative experiences, I’m lucky to have gone to primary and secondary schools where people are generally mindful of cultural differences. But since coming to Princeton, I seem to encounter insensitivity to religious diversity more frequently. Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now » Even though I’ve never been fully immersed in the holiday season, I still look forward to the end of the fall semester simply because I can reunite with my family and friends back home.

1. I can also engage with the season in the multicultural ways that feel right to me.
2. Over Thanksgiving break, my friends and I visited Christkindlmarket, an annual Christmas market in Chicago.
3. The festival attracts people from all cultural backgrounds; only one of the friends I attended the event with actually celebrates Christmas.

We ate poffertjes, little Dutch pancakes, and took photos in front of the giant Christmas tree in the center of the market. In the future, perhaps outings like these will be the extent of my involvement in the holiday season. These days, my family has been less committed to following American norms; our Thanksgiving dinner this year featured Peking duck and shrimp.

I imagine when I move out, I’ll have to create my own traditions. Moving forward, I hope to reconnect with my family’s culture. In May, I’ll celebrate the Buddha’s Birthday, the most important holiday in Korean Buddhism and a culturally significant day for Koreans of all faiths. I’m looking forward to seeing the temple come alive, the grounds adorned with dozens of paper lotus lanterns.

Bert Lee is a senior writer for The Prospect who often covers music and artist profiles. He can be reached at [email protected], Self essays at The Prospect give our writers and guest contributors the opportunity to share their perspectives. This essay reflects the views and lived experiences of the author.

What do Jews think of Christmas?

What Holiday Do Jewish People Celebrate? – Jewish people do not celebrate Christmas for many reasons. The most pressing is that Jews do not see Jesus as the Messiah. They believe that there are prophecies that he has not fulfilled, which means that he cannot be the one who was prophesized.

While Christians believe that Jesus will fulfill his prophecies in the second coming, this is not a belief shared by Jews. Jews celebrate Hanukkah, which has festivities lasting for 8 days. Hanukkah celebrates the victory that the Maccabees, a group of Jewish rebel warriors, had over Judea. Antiochus Epiphanes IV was the Syrian ruler who had control over Israel at the time.

He decimated the Temple in Jerusalem and made studying the Torah (the divine revelation to Israel that includes the first 5 books of the Hebrew bible) punishable by death. He was overthrown by the Maccabees who took back the Temple of Jerusalem. Following this, he issued an 8-day celebration of the Jewish faith.

This was marked by the rekindling of the menorah on the 25th of Kislev. The menorah is a candelabrum with four places for candles on either side of a central candle for nine candles. The candle in the middle, called the Shamash, is used to light the surrounding eight candles. The reason for lighting these candles during Hanukkah is to represent the 8-days of Jewish celebration.

The Shamash represents the small amount of oil that was able to keep the lamps in the Temple burning throughout.

Do Jews celebrate birthdays?

Do Jews Celebrate Birthdays? | My Jewish Learning Perhaps because the Jewish calendar is so crowded with holidays — many of which last for multiple days — Judaism has little to say about birthdays. However, there is certainly no Jewish objection to celebrating one’s birthday, whether when it falls on the, the Gregorian calendar or both.

• A number of Jewish traditions are associated with marking special birthdays, such as the second or third birthday, when parents traditionally marked a child’s weaning.
• The Bible mentions Abraham hosting a feast to celebrate Isaac’s weaning (Genesis 21:8).
• Other special birthdays include turning 3, when many traditional Jews cut a son’s hair for the first time — a practice referred to as — and 13, the age of,

(Traditionally, many girls marked their bat mitzvah at age 12.) Pirke Avot (5:21) specifies several important birthdays as milestones of sorts: The age of five for the study of the Bible; then ten for the study of the Mishnah; 13 for the commandments; 15 for the study of Talmud; 18 for marriage; 20 for earning a living; 30 for power; 40 for understanding; 50 for giving advice; 60 for old age, seventy for grey hairs; 80 for special strength, 90 for bowed back; 100–it is as if he had died and passed away.

1. The Hasidic group by having an aliyah (being called to the Torah), reading (including the psalm number associated with their new age), reflecting on the past year and making a donation to tzedakah (charity).
2. Use the date converter below (remember to enter your birth year) to find your Hebrew birthday: Pronounced: MISH-nuh, Origin: Hebrew, code of Jewish law compiled in the first centuries of the Common Era.

Together with the Gemara, it makes up the Talmud. Pronounced: TALL-mud, Origin: Hebrew, the set of teachings and commentaries on the Torah that form the basis for Jewish law. Comprised of the Mishnah and the Gemara, it contains the opinions of thousands of rabbis from different periods in Jewish history.

Pronounced: a-LEE-yuh for synagogue use, ah-lee-YAH for immigration to Israel, Origin: Hebrew, literally, “to go up.” This can mean the honor of saying a blessing before and after the Torah reading during a worship service, or immigrating to Israel. Pronounced: khah-SID-ik, Origin: Hebrew, a stream within ultra-Orthodox Judaism that grew out of an 18th-century mystical revival movement.

Pronounced: tzuh-DAH-kuh, Origin: Hebrew, from the Hebrew root for justice, charitable giving. Empower your Jewish discovery, daily : Do Jews Celebrate Birthdays? | My Jewish Learning

Does Israel believe in Christmas?

Though it’s not a pulbic holiday in Israel (the main religions of Israel being Judaism and Islam) and is missing lots of the commericalism of the western world, it’s an extremely meaningful place to spend Christmas. Israel is the actual land where the nativity story took place.

What is world’s oldest religion?

Hinduism () is an Indian religion or dharma, a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world’s third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global population, known as Hindus,

The word Hindu is an exonym and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, it has also been described as sanātana dharma ( Sanskrit : सनातन धर्म, lit. ”the eternal dharma”), a modern usage, based on the belief that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts,

Another endonym is Vaidika Dharma, the dharma related to the Vedas, Hinduism is a diverse system of thought marked by a range of philosophies and shared concepts, rituals, cosmological systems, pilgrimage sites, and shared textual sources that discuss theology, metaphysics, mythology, Vedic yajna, yoga, agamic rituals, and temple building, among other topics.

Prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include the four Puruṣārthas, the proper goals or aims of human life; namely, dharma (ethics/duties), artha (prosperity/work), kama (desires/passions) and moksha (liberation/freedom from the passions and the cycle of death and rebirth ), as well as karma (action, intent and consequences) and saṃsāra (cycle of death and rebirth).

Hinduism prescribes the eternal duties, such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings ( ahiṃsā ), patience, forbearance, self-restraint, virtue, and compassion, among others. Hindu practices include worship ( puja ), fire rituals ( homa/havan ), devotion ( bhakti ), fasting ( vrata ), chanting ( japa ), meditation ( dhyāna ), sacrifice ( yajña ), charity ( dāna ), selfless service ( sevā ), learning and knowledge ( jñāna ), recitation and exposition of scriptures ( pravacana ), homage to one’s ancestors ( śrāddha ), family-oriented rites of passage, annual festivals, and occasional pilgrimages ( yatra ).

Along with the various practices associated with yoga, some Hindus leave their social world and material possessions and engage in lifelong Sannyasa ( monasticism ) in order to achieve moksha, Hindu texts are classified into Śruti (“heard”) and Smṛti (“remembered”), the major scriptures of which are the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Purānas, the Mahābhārata, the Rāmāyana, and the Āgamas,

There are six āstika schools of Hindu philosophy, who recognise the authority of the Vedas, namely Sānkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaisheshika, Mimāmsā, and Vedānta, While the Puranic chronology presents a genealogy of thousands of years, starting with the Vedic rishis, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of Brahmanical orthopraxy with various Indian cultures, having diverse roots and no specific founder.

• This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period, between c.
• 500 –200 BCE and c.
• 300 CE, in the period of the Second Urbanisation and the early classical period of Hinduism, when the Epics and the first Purānas were composed.
• It flourished in the medieval period, with the decline of Buddhism in India,

Currently, the four major denominations of Hinduism are Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, and the Smarta tradition, Sources of authority and eternal truths in the Hindu texts play an important role, but there is also a strong Hindu tradition of questioning authority in order to deepen the understanding of these truths and to further develop the tradition.

What religion was Adam and Eve?

Gnostic traditions – Gnostic Christianity discussed Adam and Eve in two known surviving texts, namely the ” Apocalypse of Adam ” found in the Nag Hammadi documents and the Testament of Adam, The creation of Adam as Protoanthropos, the original man, is the focal concept of these writings.

Another Gnostic tradition held that Adam and Eve were created to help defeat Satan. The serpent, instead of being identified with Satan, is seen as a hero by the Ophites, Still other Gnostics believed that Satan’s fall, however, came after the creation of humanity. As in Islamic tradition, this story says that Satan refused to bow to Adam due to pride.

Satan said that Adam was inferior to him as he was made of fire, whereas Adam was made of clay. This refusal led to the fall of Satan recorded in works such as the Book of Enoch, In Mandaeism, “(God) created all the worlds, formed the soul through his power, and placed it by means of angels into the human body.

What is Jesus real name?

Jesus’ name in Hebrew was ‘Yeshua’ which translates to English as Joshua. So how did we get the name ‘Jesus’? And is ‘Christ’ a last name? Watch the episode to find out!

How old was Jesus when he died?

However, Bond makes the case Jesus died around Passover, between A.D.29 and 34. Considering Jesus’ varying chronology, he was 33 to 40 years old at his time of death.

Why was December 25th chosen as the birthday of Jesus?

‘The real reason for the selection of Dec.25 seems to have been that it is exactly nine months after March 25, the traditional date of Jesus’ crucifixion. As Christians developed the theological idea that Jesus was conceived and crucified on the same date, they set the date of his birth nine months later.’

What cultures don’t believe in Christmas?

Afghanistan, Algeria, Bhutan, North Korea, Libya, Mauritania, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Yemen do not recognize Christmas as a public holiday.

Do all religions celebrate Christmas?

Who celebrates Christmas? – Many faiths and cultures around the world celebrate Christmas including Christians, Catholics, and Buddhists, who all have their own traditions and beliefs. Those who are not religious or do not practice faith throughout the year may also celebrate Christmas in a religious or non-religious way.

• Reflecting on my own experiences of Christmas, it brings mixed emotions for me throughout different periods of my life and, as I look back, it’s interesting to think about both the religious and non-religious traditions we had, even though I did not come from a religious family.
• As a child, I was lucky to experience Christmas filled with love and happiness surrounded by my parents and four older siblings.

My family would make the effort to go to Church on Christmas Eve, light a candle, and take part in the local service singing Christmas carols. Christmas day would be filled with gifts and lovely food, we always watched the Queen’s speech on the television, and we would make every effort to spend time with extended family between Christmas and New Year.

I have fond memories of Christmas as a child. As I got older, however, Christmas began to lose its magic a little. My siblings grew older and had families of their own, and along with the increasing financial difficulties for myself as a young adult and my immediate family, Christmas time became a rather quiet time along with the feelings of worry of having to uphold our previous Christmas celebrations.

We no longer had a house big enough for all the siblings and their children to host Christmas dinner, and the stress and cost of purchasing food and gifts for the ever-growing nieces and nephews (now at number 17!) was difficult. We eventually had to scale back and agree that we would all have Christmas separately.

What cultures don’t do Christmas?

The Maldives – 99 percent Muslim, you won’t find any mention of Christmas while in the Maldives. But it’s not an overly horrible way to spend the holidays! Stretches of white sand beaches, crystal clear waters; and if you’re truly longing for christmas lights, just throw on some scuba gear and dive down to witness the vibrant colours of the Maldives’ coral reefs.

What cultures don’t celebrate Christmas?

Observance of Christmas in various locations around the world The observance of Christmas around the world varies by country. The day of Christmas, and in some cases the day before and the day after, are recognized by many national governments and cultures worldwide, including in areas where Christianity is a minority religion.

In some non-Christian areas, periods of former colonial rule introduced the celebration (e.g. Hong Kong ); in others, Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have led populations to observe the holiday. Christmas traditions for many nations include the installing and lighting of Christmas trees, the hanging of Advent wreaths, Christmas stockings, candy canes, setting out cookies and milk, and the creation of Nativity scenes depicting the birth of Jesus Christ,

Christmas carols may be sung and stories told about such figures as the Baby Jesus, St Nicholas, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Christkind or Grandfather Frost, The sending and exchange of Christmas card greetings, observance of fasting and special religious observances such as a midnight Mass or Vespers on Christmas Eve, the burning of a Yule log, and the giving and receiving of presents are also common practice. Map of countries where Christmas is a formal public holiday either on December 24/25 or January 6/7. Color shading indicates “Days of rest”. Note: Slovenia does have two days of rest, but the 26th is not a Christmas-related public holiday ( Independence and Unity Day (Slovenia) ).

Many national governments recognize Christmas as an official public holiday, while others recognize it in a symbolic way but not as an official legal observance. Countries in which Christmas is not a formal public holiday include Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China (excepting Hong Kong and Macau ), the Comoros, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Laos, Libya, the Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, the Sahrawi Republic, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Taiwan (Republic of China), Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen.

Countries such as Japan, where Christmas is not a public holiday but is popular despite there being only a small number of Christians, have adopted many of the secular aspects of Christmas, such as gift-giving, decorations, and Christmas trees. Christmas celebrations around the world can vary markedly in form, reflecting differing cultural and national traditions.