Why don't Jehovah Witnesses..............?(for Jehovah Witnesses)?

Question

Why don't Jehovah Witnesses celebrate any holidays?

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses practice strict political and nationalistic neutrality, so they do not celebrate nationalistic holidays such as Independence Day and Memorial Day.

Other holidays derive from false religion, and so are incompatible with pure worship as adulterating interfaith. For example, Easter derives from the pagan god Oestre and celebrates "rebirth" and "fertility" instead of commemorating Christ's Last Supper and death as Jesus commanded:
(Luke 22:1-22) [Jesus] dispatched Peter and John, saying: “Go and get the passover ready for us to eat.” ...14 At length when the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. 15 And he said to them: “I have greatly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I tell you, I will not eat it again until it becomes fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” ... Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”

Seemingly innocuous holidays may have only a tangential connection with false worship, such as Mother's Day and Father's Day (although arguably derived from ancestor worship). Understated observance of these is not generally considered interfaith by Jehovah's Witnesses, but it is too easily misunderstood in some cultures.

Since such celebrations are not required in true worship, and can easily become a distraction, so Jehovah's Witnesses focus their attention elsewhere. In particular, they are focussed on the preaching work which *IS* a requirement for Christians:

(Luke 10:1-17) [Jesus] the Lord designated seventy others and sent them forth by twos in advance of him into every city and place to which he himself was going to come. 2 Then he began to say to them: “The harvest, indeed, is great, but the workers are few. Therefore beg the Master of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20050101a/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/rq/article_11.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2000/12/15/article_01.htm

Answer 2

I am so pleased you asked former Jehovah's Witnesses to answer this question. Otherwise, how could you ever find out why they left? There are some interesting answers from your spiritual brothers and sisters - but not one of them has come up with the obvious. While I was a Jehovah's Witness, I also thought I had the true religion and there was no way I was ever going to leave it. That would be really stupid, wouldn't it, to leave what you believed to be true that gave you peace of mind. Neither did I leave because I was immoral or someone stumbled me or I simply didn't want to live up to the Bible's high standards. I wasn't mixing with worldly people, I didn't take up smoking or drinking. In fact, I was pioneering and I was married to a pioneer. So why did I leave? You need to understand that my parents became Witnesses in the 1930's, and that I knew nothing other than what Jehovah's Witnesses believed. We were all expecting the end of 6,000 years of man's existence to end in the fall of 1975 (I can provide the Watchtower quotations if you doubt me) and that meant Armageddon would come soon after. My parents believed they were the generation that would see the fulfilment of the end-time prophecies in Matthew 24 and that they would be alive when the Millennial reign of Christ started. None of us made any of this up. We all believed what the Society told us. Guess what? This prophecy was false - we're still waiting, 33 years later. This is the reason I left - false prophecies about dates and predictions when 6,000 years of human existence will end. Any peace of mind I had was shattered when I realised the extent to which I had been mislead. I am now a born-again Christian with a heavenly hope and I praise God that, through the Holy Spirit, he brought me to a place of repentance and forgiveness. Religion does not save. Only Jesus Christ can do that.

Answer 3

If you don't celebrate holidays your life will not be constantly affected by the buy me this holiday gift cycle that's reason enough but celebrating all those half christian half pagan holidays is like going to church wearing a dress coat and tie with dirty work pants on! Come on people if your a Christian you can't keep mixing with the little friendly demons.
Their no repentant vampires theirs no friendly werewolf's no christian witch's or warlocks. The easter bunny is still a sign of spring fertility from paganism and the Santa clause is still a ridiculous fantasy tale of a poor saint who never did any such things as Santa clause. And mixing silly fantasy with the son of god? Well that's not very honorable! Hey if you like to celebrate! The bible has a whole bunch of approved holidays! So why in gods green earth celebrate what's not real? Do you know that the bible actually commands a big party at church with alcoholic drink once per year? Yes it does!

Answer 4

I can't stand people who say "because they think it's wrong". That is in no way shape or form even close to what could be considered a possible answer. Do research, people!! Holidays are derived from paganism. Paganism promotes false gods which in turn equals false worship. Look up the origins of some of these holidays and if it has to do with paganism or worshipping false gods, this is why JWs don't celebrate them-which is a VERY valid excuse not to since the scriptures say that 'it is to God alone you must worship and to him you must render sacred service.' or 'you must not have any other gods before me'..

For example- Christmas. Jesus wasn't born on Dec.25! EVERYONE knows that! If not, google the origin of it. Put shortly, this was a pagan holiday having to do with Saturnalia and praising the god of the Sun. It has nothing to do with Jesus!! But why do ppl celebrate it still? They refuse to accept it because xmas has always been a "tradition". that's pure b.s.

Answer 5

The question is what observances did Christ say to keep? Did he say to specifically not celebrate his birthday? No, but when you tell your children not to do something, do you spell out every detail? When they do something they know they shouldn't be doing, and say you didn't specifically say not to do it, do you accept that and move on?

The greatest difference between JWs and the rest of Christendom can be answered with just one question. What day do you observe the memorial on?

Everyone else will falter around and perhaps come up with a day in May, but JWs will say at sunset on Niacin 14, which falls on the first full moon after the vernal equinox, the Memorial of the Last Supper. This is the only day, aside from wedding anniversaries, that Christ said to continue keeping, yet Jehovah's Witnesses are the only Christian organization that does.

Whatever you may say about whether it is right or wrong to observe the man-made holidays created since the first congregations, the fact remains that Christendom does not observe the one day Christ said to keep. What does that say for the leaders of Christendom, that they ignore that one important day of the year, and don't even know what day it falls on?

This question gets asked a lot, yet the facts of why are clearly evident. Even the Churches of Christendom recognize that the holidays and observances are not in keeping with Bible teachings, yet they fear that doing anything about it will jeopardize their positions and power. Check any religious encyclopeia about the holidays and their history.

So the question is not why don't witnesses celebrate the holidays, but why do you celebrate something not taught in the Bible? Further, why don't you know what day Christ said to observe and why don't you observe it on that day?

Whatever you may think of any of the other beliefs of JWs, you have to ask yourself is the need to observe these holidays more important than observing the day Christ said to keep?

Answer 6

Because we don't believe that they are holy days for Christians.

They can not be clean (which is what holy means) because they are pagan holy days that have had the name changed to protect the unrighteous.

Paul said to quit touching the unclean thing and Jehovah will take you in.

Yes, at one time Jehovah's Witnesses did celebrate Christmas and birthdays. But when the research was done and the truth was known, we stopped.

If you as a christian, realized that a tradition or a personal conduct you were doing was not scriptural, would you continue to do it because you all ways did, or would you stop?

Answer 7

We're supposed to follow Jesus' example. What holiday's did he celebrate? Besides, most holidays are based on pagan rituals that other religions tried to use as a way to adopt them into their form of Christianity. As much as Jehovah's Witnesses are Christian because they believe in Christ - they take the bible very seriously and therefor have a different viewpoint than most Christian religions.

Answer 8

In response also to beta_fishy's answer:

Reliving Jesus' Last Days on Earth http://www.watchtower.org/e/19980315/article_01.htm

The Last Days of Jesus' Human Life [Chart of the events]
http://www.watchtower.org/e/19980315/diagram_01.htm

Jesus told his followers to keep celebrating the memorial which he instituted just prior to his death at: Luke 22:19, 20

As of Aug of 2005, OVER 16 MILLION persons celebrated the Memorial of Christ's Death. Approximately 6.5 million of them being actual Jehovah's Witnesses, the rest being Bible students of theirs, and other interested ones.
http://www.jw-media.org/people/statistics.htm

Jesus' Resurrection on Trial --- Modern Doubters
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2001/3/15/article_01.htm

How Can Jesus Change Your Life?
- His Teachings, Deeds, and Sacrifice
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/1999/7/1/article_02.htm

The Lord s Prayer Its Meaning for You
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2004/9/15/article_02.htm

JWs celebrate that they really know Jehovah God (not just his name) & so can worship him acceptably. When & where possible, they enjoy getting together for gatherings strictly for enjoying one anothers company. This is done any time of the year -- often at parks, so often in mild weather-- also at wedding receptions 7 anniversaries. Often when a family of JWs is moving away, they'll have a gathering. Sometimes it's 'just because they care'! They aren't pressured by expectations of giving gifts, or of attending. But they often do both, just because they want to. How does that compare to those you know who celebrate specific holidays -- in attitude as well as frequency?

Answer 9

Throughout early Watchtower history, it was acceptable for Jehovah's Witnesses to celebrate holidays such as Christmas and birthdays. They even had Christmas and birthday celebrations at the Brooklyn headquarters. However,Jehovah shed "new light" and it is now considered pagan to celebrate such things. Apparently God Himself didn't realize such things were pagan until the 1950's.

Answer 10

Not sure, but there seems to be evidence that Jesus celebrated holidays in the Bible (The Last Supper being the best example).

My impression of the JWs is that they interpret a few of the verses in the Bible VERY literally, and have based their entire belief system around those interpretations. I could be wrong though, I don't know that much about them...