Jehovah Witnesses?

Question

Why do you not celebrate birthdays & holidays. I did not realize this until I posted my last question. Thanks again.

Answer 1

I am not sure what their belief is behind this.

Answer 2

--JESUS COMMANDED only one celebration, that is of the Lord's Evening Meal or the Last Supper!
--NO Israelite in the Hebrew Scriptures or Christian in the Greek Scriptures is recorded of having celebrated anybodies birthdate!

*** sj p. 18 Holidays and Celebrations ***

“The notion of a birthday festival was far from the ideas of the Christians of this period in general.”—The History of the Christian Religion and Church, During the Three First Centuries (New York, 1848), by Augustus Neander (translated by Henry John Rose), page 190.

--“Of all the holy people in the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod) who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world below.”—The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1911), Volume X, page 709 (quoting Origen Adamantius of the third century).

--SO ENJOY your celebration but we do not engage in the activity.

Answer 3

According to them... the Bible says that it is wrong to celebrate birthdays because John the Baptist died in a birthday party. There are another events too but I don't remember... and don't really understand at all

Answer 4

Pagan holidays not based on anything scriptural. Most all holidays are based on pagan conception thus being false in nature.

Call up a kingdom hall in your area and ask to speak with a decent elder who can explain this to you. A lot of worldly holidays are based on greed too.

Answer 5

Jehovah's Witnesses believe strongly in God Jehovah and in his Son Jesus Christ.

Regarding birthday celebrations, 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!


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/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_11.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20001215/article_01.htm

Answer 6

About birthdays: The most important birthday of all would have been the day Jesus was born. And yet he asked us to commemorate his DEATH. King Solomon said that the day of one's death was better than the day of one being born.

Holidays: Every one has roots in different pagan rituals. But it's too lengthy to answer that here so please feel free to go the link below and do some research at the source.

Bluetick: I sincerely want to thank you for your answer. It's nice to see an objective response aknowledging the truth of what we say.

Answer 7

In the old testament one celebrated one's day of death, not birth. The day of birth was lamented. Many "christian" holidays are not at all biblical.

Answer 8

I will take one of the easier ones. Christmas. It is pagan in origin, thus we choose to not celebrate it.

Thanks for asking.

Answer 9

simply beacuse it is not areligious hiliday and jw only celebrate religious occasions. they believe that it doesnt have to beyour bday or christmas to get you a gift, they give you a give when they want to give a gift not when your suppose to give one

Answer 10

The Scriptures are in all Bibles.

Answer 11

They are not allowed. Their organization forbids it. The Bible does not forbid it. They are allowed only to celebrate their wedding anniversary if I am right. : )

They do everything what the Watchtower organization tells them to do.