A question for Athiests. This is an honest question, no mocking answers please.?

Question

I have a friend who recently told me she is not religious at all, yet she and her family celebrate Christian holidays. When I asked her how she could celebrate Christmas and Easter as if she were a Christian she got offended. Even though Christmas is during the same time as some pagan holidays, that is not what I am celebrating. I am celebrating the birth of Jesus. I know that many families without religious beliefs celebrate Christmas and Easter, but why bother? If you are celebrating a religious holiday, yet you are not religious, what is the point?


They are great holidays, but I think if I weren't a Christian I wouldn't celebrate them. I don't celebrate holidays that don't apply to me, such as Channukah, Kwanza, Ramadan, or the pagan holidays. I just am curious about what you are celebrating.

Answer 1

Christmas hasn't been about religion in decades. Christmas is about fighting in line at toy stores for a tickle me Elmo and getting angry when you don't get good gifts.

Answer 2

First off, most atheists were born into some kind of religion so they have a tradition of gathering with relatives and friends during the same time that the other religious people do. For example I am an atheist but I was born into a Christian family. The rest of my family is still Christian. So of course at Christmas time, I don't say to them that I will not come to their house and share dinner and a drink with them. Nor will I accept a gift without giving a gift to that person also. People get into all sorts of traditions and they still maintain them as a way to rekindle and renew friendships and to spend time with relatives they do not see during the year. In fact Christians practice many pagan ritual such as hanging wreaths and coloring Easter Eggs. Does that make them pagan? No, it is simply a tradition that is still practiced without the pagan meaning in mind. And that is all that atheists are doing when they get together at the holidays. It is simply a matter of custom and habit.

Answer 3

With the commercialization of holidays it has now become as much family time as religious time. There is no reason that someone should not be able to get together and be with their families on that day and celebrate as the family sees fit. Since most families are spread out, many across the many miles of the US, holidays sometimes become the only times they may all be under one roof.

I'm agnostic, I do not celebrate Easter and in a limited fashion celebrate Christmas as I am married to a christian and have christian parents. However, I would never judge how someone else decides to spend that day. To each their own.

Answer 4

I do not celebrate Christmas, just enjoy the holiday season. Spending time with my family during the holidays is wonderful, as per the normal time for business to shut down is over Christmas, atheists have no choice but to appear that they celebrate the religious holiday (actually the time of the year taken from pagan and other religions - not an original Christian celebration by the way). So if you call having family together to enjoy the company of each other during some down time celebrating Christmas then fill your boots.

Answer 5

Well, it's kind of hard not to get swept up in all the commercialization and hype around Christmastime.

For me, it's a family holiday. A celebration of the family and friends. With a cool bearded guy as a mascot.

I don't do Easter very much, though. Too heavily Christianized for me. I might attend an Easter gathering if I'm invited by friends, but it's not a big thing to me.

Answer 6

I'm a pagan and an atheist (and a Taoist) but I know what you're getting at.

The thing is, those holidays are celebrated socially, and many people who don't celebrate them for religious reasons, will celebrate them because they're fun, their families and friends do it, it's tradition, etc. There are lots of secular reasons to do it. The only difference is that for many people, there's no deep religious meaning, as there is for you (and me in my different way).

But they don't celebrate Channukah, Kwanza, or Ramadon because it's not their tradition to do so and their social circles and families do not. Or some do, actually. If it's a habit they grew up with, they're likely to do it even though they don't do it for religous reasons.

Answer 7

Jesus celebrated the Jewish feast of Passover on the night before He died. He is the Pascal Lamb. The Easter Celebration is a rememberance of this event. It is NOT a pagan celebration. The timing of Christmas was changed from summer time to winter yes, but it was to try and set up a liturgical year...not to bring forth pagan rituals.

I do believe that holidays are meant to be celebrated with your family, or extended family. I don't think there is a reason to question anyone's desire to celebrate any holiday with their family and friends.

God be with you.

Answer 8

Many people celebrate Christmas and Easter because they are social activities, giving them an excuse to have a big dinner, give gifts, and basically party. It doesn't really matter to them that what they are celebrating is someone else's religion. To them, it is Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, not the birth and the death/rebirth of Jesus.

It may seem silly to you, but then if they have no religion at all, the only holidays they get are New Years Day and the Fourth of July. And since they get the day off work anyway, why not? That's celebration enough for many people!

Answer 9

I think you're missing the point.

My mom celebrated everbody's holidays--I guess that's why she was so popular and had so many friends. We went to parades for Chinese New Year, wore patriotic outfits on all the US holidays, did all the Christian holidays (roman and eastern rite), some of the Jewish holidays (including Passover, Yom Kippur and Hannukah) El Eid for the Muslims, and Divali for the Hindus. I may have forgotten a few, but I am certainly culturally well educated and comfortable with

Since the Christmas AND Easter you celebrate are holidays that predate Christianity, and were stolen or co-opted by church authorities, they don't actually 'belong' to Christianity and can be celebrated as communal or cultural holidays by anyone who wishes to do so. Christmas is the winter solstice, common to most religions worldwide as a time to celebrate the re-birth of the sun, and Eastre is the name of the Celtic goddess of the spring solstice, whose symbols were chicken eggs and bunny rabbits.

So, next time you try to get all selfish about your holidays, make sure they really belong to you!

Answer 10

Those holidays both predate Christianity. None of the customs associated with them have anything to do with Christianity. The Catholic church shoved Jesus up our asses a while back, but they just did so because they knew the pagans would not give up these beloved holidays.

We atheists won't give them up either. Your Jesus was shoehorned into these holidays, so it's not your place to ask why anyone celebrates them. The better question is... WHY DO YOU CELEBRATE THESE PAGAN HOLIDAYS?

No offense. But you're pretty backwards on this one.

Answer 11

As a person of no religion, per se, I still believe in the quality of tradition. I was raised Christian and in my older years I've formed my own beliefs. My family is Christian and we celebrate all of our holidays together. I'd be inclined to say that religion shouldn't matter in holidays more than the fact that you're with the ones you love. Holidays are more than just a celebration... in my life, they are tradition and an excuse to eat like I've never eaten all year with my family and friends.