How can athiests celebrate holidays with children?

Question

Every holiday is mired in religion/tradition, how does one celebrate when young children are involved without filling their heads with myths and lore.

Answer 1

It's quite easy. They will tell them Easter is about a bunny and Christmas is about gifts. Those are the only religious holidays atheists really celebrate.

Answer 2

By pherhaps celebrating them as cyclical periods of the natural proccesses of nature around us, such as Spring and Easter symbolizing "rebirth" etc. these are scientific proofs.

Although it may be argued that these ideas crossover into pagan and animist beliefs, humans and other sentient animals are closely linked with nature, for instance spring scientifically IS a time of rebirth and rejuvenation.

There are trusims that are not based around dogma and "belief" in every religious celebration.I beleive breaking off from tradition totally may be a denial of our inherent nature, that is that although science nor religion has given us an adequate understanding of the universe , we can still celebrate the awesome mystery of the world we live in,find beauty in,and are sustained in.

My question is;although you do not wish your children to be told mis-information and myth, will these myths actually harm your children? I believe it would only be devout belief in these myths which may create harm. It has been shown thatsome beliefs, though neither proven nor disproven by the emperical scientific method,actually allow us to lead richer and more fulfilling lives, proven by living longer and healthier lives. I do not think this is comfort or reliance upon beliefs of external metaphysical forces myslef, i think it is acknowledgment that we are fallible creatures with limited intellect, perceptual intake and may be just as blindfolded as the amoeba that percieves the reality it can perceive. It doesnt even have sight. We do. pherhaps we aremissing on other senses which would hint at the nature of the universe around us?

Answer 3

Easy. You are the parent. You make the rules. If you are religious. Tie the holiday with religion. If you aren't (or if you are), you don't have to tie it to religion. Jesus wasn't born on Dec 25, so that tie with religion is false, but many people like the idea, so they go along with it.

Santa and the Easter Bunny aren't bad. They're as real as Zeus, Hermes, etc, but we read about those with no problem. Just let the kids know it's a story.

Personally, I'm religious, but don't tie holidays to religion.

Answer 4

two of the most popular holidays are for the working class. Labor day is one since it is a three day holiday. explain to me what religion had to do with this one. It is very popular because many people having a three day weekend leave the city and go somewhere. Xmas was a pagan holiday celebrating the winter solstice before Jesus was born. Easter was a celtic holiday celebrating the spring equinox before Jesus died. Religion many times tried to change history from what it formerly was. Did Jesus also invent the internet? I thought that was Al Gore... or was Al working for Jesus?

Answer 5

I don't seen any issue with filling a child's head with myths and lore as long as they know it's myths and lore and not real. I think it's fun. It's only a problem when you fill their head with myths and lore and tell them the myths are literally true and the lore is an accurate description of how the cosmos really works. As long as they're clear on what is make believe and what isn't. One of my favorite bumper stickers sums it up, "God is Just Make Believe." I think little kids can handle make believe.

Answer 6

You're kidding right??? New Year's Eve has nothing to do with religion. Valentine's Day was originally meant to honor St. Valentine, but is now a non-religious "holiday" as well. Some people celebrate the equinoxes, but they are not Christians. Atheists (NOTE THE CORRECT SPELLING) can celebrate any day they want to with children, simply by doing so.

BTW: I'm not an atheist.

Answer 7

And what holidays are you talking about. I'm sure you know that most "christian" holidays were originally actually pagan holidays.

There's nothing wrong with celebrating the tradition of holidays either. I mean what do Santa, or the Easter bunny, or the 4th of July, or Mother's Day, Father's Day, or memorial day, or just about every holiday out there have to do with religion??

Answer 8

As a child, I celebrated Easter as the day when my parents gave me chocolate eggs, which they claimed were delivered by a bunny, but they didn't really expect me to believe that. It didn't have anything to do with religion.
There's nothing wrong with exposing children to myths, as long as they know, or work out eventually, that they're just myths. And anyway, no one was ever killed in the name of the Easter Bunny.

Answer 9

The fourth of July is a religious holiday???

or memorial day
or veterans day
or new years eve and day
or Columbus day
or martin Luther king day
or flag day
or presidents day
or modern Halloween (samhein yes)
or thanksgiving (it was about survival, not religion)
or Labor day
or ground hog day


seems like Easter, passover and Christmas are the only religious holidays...

and your "christian" religious holidays are all stolen from the pagan religions they conquered and assimilated...

Are Christan's the Borg of the religious world???

Christmas=candlemas
Halloween=samhein

Answer 10

Children(depending on their age) are not able to fully comprehend the basis of truth and fiction. It's easier to say this or that due to the fact that children are a bit more gullible than adults and they don't care either way. As long as they get toys and or ice cream; they're happy. I'm not an athiest or anything; this is just my opinion.