Christians: During easter and christmas, do you actually follow?

Question

the religious part of the holiday? If so, what do you do ?

Answer 1

Nope!

At the church I attend we just KEEP PRAISIN!

Answer 2

I do follow the religious part of the holidays. It is very meaningful for me to connect with Christians over the centuries who actually celebrated the church calendar. I follow the readings in the (Anglican, Church of England) Book of Common prayer. They have readings for morning and night, everyday. These verses from scripture go along with either Lent (leading up to Easter) or Advent (leading up to Christmas). It is a wonderful way to prepare one's soul for the upcoming holiday.

Lent is fasting something...giving up something for the 40 days before Easter to symbolize us longing for Christ and prepare us for Easter. Not only Catholics do this, lots of the more liturgical Protestant churches do it also.

The services at Easter week (Holy Week) are Maundy Thursday (meaning new commandment...to love one another. This is the day that Christ gave this new commandment). Good Friday - sometimes it is called a "Tenebrae" service, meaning darkness or shadows. They do the last words of Christ and it gets darker and darker in the church until finally they say "It is finished" and the lights go out, symbolising Christ's death. Then everyone leaves in silence. Very worshipful. And of course...Easter Sunday is celebrating the Ressurection!

Christmas has Advent services, one for each week leading up to Christmas in Advent season. It is sometimes called the "Lent of winter"

I feel that just observing the secular side of these holidays when one is a Christian is really flippant and missing out! The value of spiritual discipline is immense, and really the whole reasoning behind these holidays. We are to remember the birth and death of the Lord always, and these specific weeks out of the year are a very rich way of doing so!

Answer 3

At our house we celebrate the 'religious' meanings of the holidays and through in the fun 'traditional' parts also.
Christmas - we do the advent calendar (spend a month reviewing the events that lead up to the birth of Jesus and the Christmas story) and still through in the tree and presents (we also have a tradition of giving an anonymous present to a person in need in Jesus' name)
Easter - we do the eggs and stuff (kids are too old for the bunny), but we also spend a month reviewing the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ, the typical Easter morning service and we throw in a Seder dinner (the Jewish passover dinner that Jesus celebrated for the 'last supper') to see all of the meanings and teaching that Christ used.

Answer 4

Yes. We celebrate the three days before Easter as the Easter Triduum. I attend all of these liturgies. (Holy Thursday : Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper- Good Friday of the Lord's Passion- and the great Easter Vigil.) I attend Mass on Christmas as well.

Answer 5

Yes most certainly I do . While Christmas is a time of praising our Lord and spending time in fellowship, to me the up most importance is recognizing His birth. Christmas eve is spent in church worshiping and praising Him.
Easter time is to me the holiest of Christian holiday seasons. It is a time spent in the reflection of the agony and sacrifice on Good Friday. I spend the morning in Church with prayer and holy communion. It is a time also of self examination. Just to think of the pain He went through as He took on all our sins. For God the Father to sacrifice His son would also be agonizing. As a parent there can be nothing worse then seeing your child in pain and agony. The self examination part comes in when I think " am I really worth that sacrifice that was made on my behalf" Easter Morning is spent at a sun rise service with such joy knowing our Lord is resurrected. He is alive! always and forever!
Following the sun rise service at the side of the ocean we then go to the church and spend a couple more hours in praise and worship of Him. What an awesome privilege it is to be able to worship our Lord and Savior

Answer 6

Not a Christian, and generally work these holidays, though we do spend a lot of money. I like the idea of Christmas because it does seem to be a time of excitement and anticipation, and it's fun to buy presents for people.

Answer 7

Well sometimes they have a church service but I'm a christian and even though my family believes deeply that jesus was born and thats why we celebrate christmas we just open the presents but we also believe there is no santa clause.

Answer 8

Easter eggs and Christmas turkey! Religously followed and swallowed!

Answer 9

what is the religious part of the holiday?

Answer 10

yeah,we eat the egg that they give us
(sometimes they distribute other stuff)

easter
have a solemn moment
scripture discernment
return home

good friday
praisepraisepraise
scriptural evidence
return home
eat the egg

christmas
we open the presents first and then we visit the church? haha..