Question about Jehovah's Witness?

Question

I'm in the school band, today we got a new score to play. "Happy Birthday", need to play that song because tommorow there's a teacher celebrating his birthday.

So anyway, suddenly my junior didn't want to play this song, he said it was againts his religion; Jehovah's Witness.

So, I'm curious, why can't he play the happy birthday song?

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate holidays, including birthdays.

Answer 2

Birthdays: The only two birthday celebrations spoken of in the Bible were held by persons who did not worship Jehovah. (Genesis 40:20-22; Mark 6:21, 22, 24-27) The early Christians did not celebrate birthdays. The custom of celebrating birthdays comes from ancient false religions. True Christians give gifts and have good times together at other times during the year.

Answer 3

You might say that he is only playing the music, not participating in the celebration, but consider the music of Richard Wagner. Some of his music was highly favored by Hitler and the Nazis, and as such, those pieces are never performed, though Wagner died 40 years for Nazism raised its ugly head. Two years ago, there was a report in the news about the commotion cause by a European music director who dared to try and bring back the music.

It seems to me that's a little crazier than not being willing to play a birthday song. Perhaps you might ask the music teacher why the music of the third Reich is still black listed? It was not the fault of the composers that their music was used by them.

Answer 4

The celebration of birthdays had strong connections with pagan religion that are less noticable today.
Much that is taken for granted in birthday celebrations today retains the flavor of ancient religious rites.
Celebrating birthdays is rooted in superstition and false religion.
Given the known origin of celebrating birthdays,and more important the unfavorable light in which they are presented in the Bible,Jehovahs Witnesses have ample reason to abstain from the practice..They do not need to follow this worldly custom,for they can and do have happy meals any time during the year.Their gift giving is not obligatory or under the pressure of a party,it is a spontaneous sharing of gifts at any time out of generosity and genuine affection.

Answer 5

With J.W's, birthdays are not celebrated. Nor is anything to do with birthdays.
The reason is that in the Bible, the two birthdays mentioned both resulted in disaster for their participants.
Genesis 40; 20-22 and Matthew 14; 6-10.
God's word to us reports UN- favourably about birthday celebrations.

Answer 6

We obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29) If celebrating birthday is important and a must, Jehovah God would have revealed Jesus' birthday in the Bible. Jesus Christ being the greatest man who ever lived did not celebrate his birthday in all his 33 1/2 years on earth. The Israilites and first century Christians did not celebrate their birthdays. What makes it right for us to celebrate it today? The most important event God had it written down in the Bible for us to remember is the death of Jesus.

Jehovah God loves mankind so much that he gave his only begotten son Jesus to the world. Jesus loves mankind so much that he offered up himself to redeem our sins so that we might get everlasting life. The ideas of birthday celebration came from people who worshipped false Gods in the old days. As Jehovah's Witnesses, we want to keep our worship clean to the one true God Jehovah. Besides, the two birthday celebrations mentioned in the Bible were of people who did not worship Jehovah God and in both of those events, someone's head was cut off - one of them being John the Baptist, Jehovah God's prophet. How do you think God feels about that?

Answer 7

Celebrating birthdays is rooted in superstition and false religion, but that is not the sole or prime reason why Jehovah’s Witnesses avoid the practice.

Some customs that were once religious in nature no longer are in many places. For example, the wedding ring once had religious significance, but in most places today, it no longer does. Hence, many true Christians accept the local custom of wearing a wedding ring to give evidence that a person is married. In such matters, what generally is influential is whether a practice is now linked to false religion.—
There is no denying, though, that numerous reference works reveal the superstitious and religious antecedents of celebrating birthdays. The Encyclopedia Americana (1991 edition) notes: “The ancient world of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Persia celebrated the birthdays of gods, kings, and nobles.” It says that the Romans observed the birth of Artemis and the day of Apollo. In contrast, “although the ancient Israelis kept records of the ages of their male citizens, there is no evidence that they had any festivities on the anniversary of the birth date.”

Other reference works go into considerable detail about the origin of birthday celebrations: ‘Birthday parties began years ago in Europe. People believed in good and evil spirits, sometimes called good and evil fairies. Everyone was afraid of these spirits, that they would cause harm to the birthday celebrant, and so he was surrounded by friends and relatives whose good wishes, and very presence, would protect him against the unknown dangers that the birthday held. Giving gifts brought even greater protection. Eating together provided a further safeguard and helped to bring the blessings of the good spirits. So the birthday party was originally intended to make a person safe from evil and to insure a good year to come.’—Birthday Parties Around the World, 1967.

The book explains, too, the origin of many birthday customs. For example: “The reason [for using candles] goes back to the early Greeks and Romans who thought that tapers or candles had magical qualities. They would offer prayers and make wishes to be carried up to the gods by the flames of candles. The gods would then send down their blessings and perhaps answer the prayers.”
As mentioned, however, more is involved in this question than whether celebrating birthdays was or still is religious. The Bible brings up the matter of birthdays, and mature Christians wisely are sensitive to any indications it gives.

God’s servants of old noted when individuals were born, which allowed them to figure ages. We read: “Noah got to be five hundred years old. After that Noah became father to Shem, Ham and Japheth.” “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, . . . all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open.”—Genesis 5:32; 7:11; 11:10-26.

As even Jesus mentioned, among God’s people childbirth was a blessed, happy event. (Luke 1:57, 58; 2:9-14; John 16:21) Yet, Jehovah’s people did not memorialize the date of birth; they kept other anniversaries but not birthdays. (John 10:22, 23) Encyclopaedia Judaica says: “The celebration of birthdays is unknown in traditional Jewish ritual.” Customs and Traditions of Israel observes: “The celebration of birthdays has been borrowed from the practices of other nations, as no mention is made of this custom among Jews either in The Bible, Talmud, or writings of the later Sages. In fact, it was an ancient Egyptian custom.”

That Egyptian connection is clear from a birthday celebration related in the Bible, one that true worshipers were not observing. It was the birthday feast of the Pharaoh who ruled while Joseph was in an Egyptian prison. Some of those pagans may have been happy over the feast, yet the birthday was linked to the beheading of the chief of Pharaoh’s bakers.—Genesis 40:1-22.

A similar unfavorable light is shed on the other birthday celebration described in the Scriptures—that of Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. This birthday celebration is hardly presented in the Bible as just innocent festivity. Rather, it occasioned the beheading of John the Baptizer. Then, “his disciples came up and removed the corpse and buried him and came and reported to Jesus,” who ‘withdrew from there into a lonely place for isolation.’ (Matthew 14:6-13) Do you imagine that those disciples or Jesus felt drawn to the practice of birthday celebrations?

Given the known origin of celebrating birthdays, and more important, the unfavorable light in which they are presented in the Bible, Jehovah’s Witnesses have ample reason to abstain from the practice. They do not need to follow this worldly custom, for they can and do have happy meals any time during the year. Their gift giving is not obligatory or under the pressure of a party; it is spontaneous sharing of gifts at any time out of generosity and genuine affection.—Proverbs 17:8; Ecclesiastes 2:24; Luke 6:38; Acts 9:36, 39; 1 Corinthians 16:2, 3.

Answer 8

It is true that the Jehovah's Witness religion understands the bible to consistently associate birthday celebrations with pagans and never with godly true worshippers (see details below).

However, the specifics about exactly what details constitute "celebrating" a birthday are left to the individual conscience of each Witness to decide for himself. Technically, a Witness who chose to play a "birthday song" might violate the CONSCIENCES of most Witnesses, but he would not necessarily be compromising RELIGIOUS beliefs. In a similar way, Judaism TECHNICALLY allowed pig-farming (on behalf of non-Jews) although Jews considered pigs to be unclean and would never have eaten their meat (see Luke 15:15,16); thus a Jewish pig-farmer was ALMOST unheard of, and would likely have cited his "religion" for his rejection of that work when it was actually his "conscience".


Bible students are encouraged to consider:
: 0% of faithful biblical Jews celebrated birthdays
: 0% of first century Christians celebrated birthdays
: 100% of birthdays celebrated in the bible were by debauched enemies of God (See Mark 6:17-29; Gen 40:19-22)

Bible historians (M'Clintock, Strong, and others) have noted that faithful Jews of the bible did not celebrate birthdays, and that ancient pagan birthday celebrations were at least partially intended to honor the patron gods of the particular day.

By comparison with such paganisms, the bible does not even tell us the birthdates of Jesus or ANY of his apostles!

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. 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.

Answer 9

For the best answer on why He feels this way I suggest you ask him. We feel that Birthdays are pagan celebrations. As such we prefer not to be involved in them. He can do anything he wishes. Appearently he has decided it goes against his concience. Hope this helps.

Answer 10

I've got a few friends that are ex- jehovas witness. In their religion no one is to be placed on a pedistal, no one. So celebrating a birthday is putting the birthday boy or girl above others. By the way your junior thinks you to be less then him. You are the ignorant worldy people and will spend an eternity in nothingness unless you repent.