What do other religions celebrate when Christians celebrate Christmas?

Question

Are there holidays for other religions the same time as Christmas? If so, what are they and what are the main things to know about them?

Also, is there a custom for athiests over the holiday time?

Answer 1

Around the same time as Christmas there are a few different holy days for other religions:

Chanukah / Hanukkah:
Hanukkah (Hebrew: חנוכה), also known as the Festival of Lights or Festival of Rededication, is an eight-day Jewish holiday beginning on the 25th day of Kislev, which can occur in very late November, or throughout December. When Hanukkah begins in the last week of December, it continues into the following January. The festival is observed in Jewish homes by the kindling of lights on each of the festival's eight nights, one on the first night, two on the second, and so on.
The holiday was called Hanukkah meaning "dedication" because it marks the re-dedication of the Temple after its desecration under Antiochus IV. Spiritually, Hanukkah commemorates the Miracle of the Oil. According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days - which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate new oil.

Eid:
Eid ul-Fitr (Arabic: عيد الفطر, Persian: عید فطرTurkish: Ramazan Bayramı / Şeker Bayramı) , often abbreviated as simply Eid, sometimes spelled Eid al-Fitr, is an Islamic holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. Fitr means "to break the fast" and therefore symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period.
This marks the end of Ramaddan in the Islamic calendar (lunar) and is celebrated anywhere between the end of one year or the beginning of the next in the Christian calendar, depending on where is falls that particular year. There is a link below on Shawwal, the 10th month, this festival falls.

Yule:
Yule is the winter solstice celebration of the Scandinavian Norse mythology and Germanic pagans. In Neopaganism, this celebration is largely reconstructed to various extents by various groups. In Wicca, a form of the holiday is observed as one of the eight solar holidays, or sabbats, where Yule is celebrated on the winter solstice: in the northern hemisphere, circa December 21, and in the southern hemisphere, circa June 21.
"Yule" and "Yuletide" (also see Yalda) refer to the period extending from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6 and is often used to refer to Christmas. People unfamiliar with ancient Norse mythology's pagan traditions usually do not distinguish between Yule (Joul) and Christmas, as it is used in many Christmas songs.

Kwanzaa:
Kwanzaa (or Kwaanza) is a week-long Pan-African festival primarily honoring African-American heritage. [1] It is observed from December 26 to January 1 each year, almost exclusively in the United States of America

Kwanzaa consists of seven days of celebration, featuring activities such as candle-lighting and pouring of libations, and culminating in a feast and gift-giving. It was founded by Ron Karenga, and first celebrated from December 26, 1966, to January 1, 1967. Karenga calls Kwanzaa the African American branch of "first fruits" celebrations of classical African cultures.

Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called "The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa", or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba - "The seven Principles of Blackness"), which Karenga said "is a communitarian African philosophy" consisting of Karenga's distillation of what he deemed "the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition and reason that Karenga used to refer to his synthesized system of belief. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, which are explained by Karenga as follows:

- Umoja (Unity) To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
- Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
- Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
- Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
- Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
- Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
- Imani (Faith) To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
These principles correspond to Karenga's notion that "the seven-fold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black."

Athiests:
Athieism is not a religion so there is no organised holy day. A structured holy day would go against everything they stand for! From the Athieists I spoke to most of them (living in the Western world) use the time to get together with family and friends. As one of them said to me, "There is very little Christianity in Christmas - think about how many people you know who read religious texts or even say grace on the meal! It is more about getting together with those you care about, and that is exactly what I do."

It is worth having a more in-depth look by clicking on the links below.

Answer 2

I'm a Christian and I do not celebrate Christmas. WHY? Because the Celebration of Christmas is not based on the Bible?
In fact, the New Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges: “The date of Christ’s birth is not known. The Gospels indicate neither the day nor the month . . . According to the hypothesis suggested by H. Usener . . . and accepted by most scholars today, the birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar, January 6 in the Egyptian), because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun). On Dec. 25, 274, Aurelian had proclaimed the sun-god principal patron of the empire and dedicated a temple to him in the Campus Martius. Christmas originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong at Rome.”—(1967), Vol. III, p. 656.

Answer 3

Some Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on differing dates (eg: Greek Othodox on Jan 6th, I think)

Muslims will be celebrating the Second feast of the Haj on Jan 1, 2007

The Chinese New Year is for Chinese whether Buddhist, Taoists or Confucians

As others have said, Jews celebrate Hannakah about the same time

Answer 4

I'm a Christian, which means to be Christlike, holiday celebrating is not bible based, and were instructed not to follow the ways of the nations. For instance Christmas, people connect that with Jesus but yet Jesus never spoke of it in the Bible, and if we research Gods word at Jeremiah 10 chapter trees were being chopped down and decorated before Jesus came to earth, so how did it get attached to Jesus birth? Gods word is available for all , just research the scriptures and the answer is within Gods word , and we're urged to stay away from pagan traditions and true followers of Jesus heed those admonition... goodnight all

Answer 5

It depends on how extreme you want to be. Jehovah's witnesses, for example, do not celebrate it because of its pagan roots. However in modern America it is largely perceived as a Christian only holiday by people who don't understand history. In Jewish law, one is not supposed to have anything to do with any sort of paganism. But in the New testament, because of conflicts in the early church between Jewish Christians and non-Jewish Christians, it was advised not to go to pagan celebrations because it might upset some people in your church. However, since practically no American Christian will be offended by you celebrating Christmas, just go ahead and celebrate it.

Answer 6

When Christians celebrate christmas the other religions people celebrate with you ,they celebrate and take equals happiness in celebrating lords birthday with you

Love each other is what you should know on the eve of christmas there is no other religions ,but as the religions of love ,faith and oneship of each and every single one alive.

Answer 7

Christmas is a pagan holiday NOT a Christian holiday. Also many atheists and people of other religions celebrate Christmas. Nowadays the holiday is all about Santa and presents not God.

Answer 8

There are some very unchristian responses here from so called christians - shame on you.

It seems that you people think that you have an exclusive claim to and festivities in December, but you must remember that the pagan Yule festival predates any christian claim.

The christian claim on the december festivities is tenuous at best, since the actual date of christ's birth (assuming that he ever existed and like many other dates in the christian calendar) is unknown.

I think that it would be a good idea to save the vitriol, and concentrate on how you live your lives. Otherwise it might be you in eternal torment while the rest of us are sitting around having a beer with god.

Answer 9

Hey Gail,
Well, let me tell you that I'm Christian, but I don't celebrate Christmas. Christ was NOT born on the 25th of December, He was born near the end of September or early October.
Have a listen to all the stories of His birth that you hear about. The shepherds were out in the paddocks with their sheep. December is in the winter in the northern hemisphere. Those shepherds could not have been out with the sheep in the middle of winter!
Do you have any idea who WAS born on that date? Have you ever heard of Nimrod? He was a huge dark skinned man that people called the Sun God. (See where people made the mistake? Sun God/Son of God) He married his own mother! He lived in the time of Noah.
We celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles during September/October, but not because that was Christ's birthday, but because He commanded us to observe it when He first created us. (The One who became Christ is the Hebrew God of the Old Testament.)
The other days He commands we observe are:
The Passover
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
The Feast of the First Fruits or Pentecost
The Feast of Trumpets
The Day of Atonement
The Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths
The Last Great Day

I hope this answers your question, love.

Answer 10

African's celebrate Kawanza
Jews celebrate Hanukkah/hanukah
Islams(muslims) celbrate Ramadan

That's all I can remember at the moment.

Answer 11

Pagan/Wiccans celebrate Yule or Winter Solstice. Astronomically it's a celebration that the days will start getting longer, and the darkness of winter is receeding (even though the coldest months are yet to come).

Mythologically it celebrates the rebirth of the God as He returns.

"For unto us, the Sun is reborn!"

Celebrations and symbols include evergreen trees, yule logs, feasting, mistletoe, wreaths, deer/stags (representing the God).

Mike Nichols has an excellent series called "The Witches Sabbats" where he explains the history and symbolism behind the holidays:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/7280/