I recently fell down the pagan holiday rabbit hole and now I feel like I should no longer celebrate Christmas or Easter…

Problem is I’m not Jewish and my husband thinks Passover is nothing more than Jewish Independence Day so he A) is not convinced we should celebrate it B) thinks it’s gonna be a hard transition and C) it’s gonna cause problem with his side of our family (non-denom Christian).

Are there any #Nostriches who’ve gone down this rabbit hole? Celebrate Passover instead of Christmas? Or have any advice period?

Would love some assistance thinking this through 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

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Yeah I went down that rabbit hole. I don’t celebrate it as such, but it’s a nice excuse to see family and friends and spend quality time together.

That’s my husband’s stance but what does that look like? Do we buy gifts for others and not take the ones people give us? How do we not celebrate something that everyone around us?

I just announce to the family that it isn’t necessary to buy me presents, word it in a way that you’re serious and not just being polite. Has worked for me!

Awesome!! Thanks so much!

Pleasure, hope it works out for you!

No Christian will have a problem with Passover. And anyone who cares about you not having Christmas is only because they are materialistic.

I appreciate you! This has been my stance the entire time. If you’re really Christian Passover should make sense to uphold.

Share the history with your kids and see what they think

Don’t have any yet… I’m trying to start family traditions now so that when they’re born they are born into the tradition. That when they get older and question for themselves they will have a strong foundation to fall back on.

That makes sense. I have some friends who celebrate the winter solstice during Christmas and that seems to work. I think once you start having kids holidays are just fun to celebrate with them more than anything. Whatever helps you feel happy will work.

Religion hijacked holidays, enjoy any and all that you want.

If some people have an issue with it, it's a THEM problem.

Uk Halloween used to be a few ghost and witch stories. Then in 1972 I came back from the USA and introduced Trick or Treat locally, because when you're 8 and there are free sweets involved, who cares if I'm culturally appropriating from the Yanks :-)

I'm sorry to UK parents everywhere for what I unleashed. I was 8.

😂😂 I totally understand. My husband isn’t big on Halloween… I love it so our compromise for when we have kids is calling it Satoshi Day and letting them dress up as who they think Satoshi is… that way the fun is still there and they can still say trick or treat but they will have been taught the trick = cryptocurrency and the treat = Bitcoin 😂😂😂😂😂

I've known a lot of Jews who have celebrated Christmas for the kids and grandkids. Its more about santa and presents, so the superficial things, not the birth of Christ.

I personally am agnostic about any religion or god, as none of us knw in absolute surety if god exists or what his/her name is. It pretty much depends on which country you were born in and in what time period as to which god you would have had faith in.

I understand.

I really want to provide a foundation for my future kids that’s solid. I’m faithful because I’ve known a time in my life without God and can 100% see the difference with Jesus.

I don’t want my kids to become disenfranchised or have weak faith because we practice tradition based religion as opposed to knowing the truth and celebrating what’s real.

If you don’t mind sharing, what led you to agnosticism?

Simply clear, rational thought. If you are happy with a delusion then I certainly don't want to be the one to spoil it.

Thank you for being so thoughtful. I appreciate that 🧡🫂💫

Celebrate the seasons.

Drop the rest.

For sure but what does that look like? Christmas trees and Santa?

I was taught Jesus is the reason for the season… but scripture says we are supposed to celebrate the resurrection and not the birth (the season). The resurrection season is Passover … which is my argument for celebrating Passover.

Changing of the seasons were celebrated long before those two shitty religions.

Just enjoy nature during this time with your closest.

Ahhhh, I understand you fully now.

St Patrick’s days is another one

I’m black and the European part of my family was French so I never felt comfortable celebrating that holiday.

Don’t blame ya it’s another day where people were killed

Specifically pagans. My family stopped celebrating thanksgiving due to the lies we were told growing up by American education.

Right! Part of my heritage is native black (descendants of slaves owned by Native Americans and therefore belong to the tribe). When I learned that the natives who interacted with the Pilgrims did so at the expense of warring tribes… I can’t begin to explain the confusion I felt about the holiday. I had so many questions.

Now I think of it as a time to get together with loved ones but we don’t do turkey, etc. and we don’t discuss pilgrims 😂

Same we usually just chill and order pizza and watch movies or something. No turkey for us 💪

Passover is an invention by jews because they felt like missing out when most people celebrated christmass.

As Jesus Christ is the devil for them such a thing as judeo christianity does not exist

I don’t think that’s necessarily true.

Jesus celebrated Passover and when he gave Peter the keys to the kingdom it was to open it up to the Jews at Pentecost and other non-believers … there’s nothing about a Christ-mass plus Passover happens at Easter so idk why they’d be jealous of Christmas… maybe you’re thinking about Hannukah??

I meant hannukah, you are totally right here.

Anyways the days celebrated are arbitrage comming together in the name of christ (love) is what counts.

And this should be celebrated every day

Christmass in the west has been perverted in a materialistic way I don't even enjoy the time as much as I did 10-15 years ago

Same! My mom and I used to go ALL OUT for Christmas. She’d convert the house to a wonderland and it felt magical… and she made it that way because we did nothing but give.

Now that she’s gone and my kids won’t know her … I feel I’d be teaching them materialism because that’s kinda how the people around me see it and that’s not real. I really want my family to find and live in truth.

I have no children yet, but I believe a good start is to show them the nostr/bitcoin community and how they perceive value.

I'd keep them away from corporate degeneracy, apps like tiktok etc which is almost impossible if you don't live in a gated community in the outback.

Oh most definitely! I don’t have any either just tryna prep my life to be ready when they come.

My mom was a phD in education and built curriculums for kids k-12. I plan on using those and teaching my kids from home.

I’m big into magnesium so definitely don’t plan on giving them screens. I’m training myself to eat rare steak and drink goats milk so they’ll receive adequate nutrition in utero. We also wanna raise them off grid.

My babies are gonna be multicultural Americans because of who their parents are so I NEED them to know who they are so they can articulate who they’re not when the world tries to label them… only way for that to happen is if I teach them.

It’s a heck of a rabbit hole; and way more to unpack than many folks can.

Simple advice, “Paul encouraged folks to let folks work out their faith.” What you believe, and how you live it is part (first) of a collective faith, then of your individual steps in that faith. If you will. You will pick up and pit down many things. It’s ok. It’s encouraged.

For the holidays you choose to celebrate, be open to others’ views but convinced of your own. Christmas, Easter, and several others have been co-opted by many secular and non-secular folks over the ages. Passover and Ramadan seem to have been better able to keep a separate (holy?) framing in the greater view, though there’s arguments within on what is and isn’t good enough.

Be gentile with yourself as you take these steps. And give grace to folks who aren’t seeing things as you do. From there, follow the Creator and strive toward holiness. That’s going to help whatever holidays you celebrate resonate in truth for others

Thank you for such thoughtful and encouraging advice!

You’re absolutely right and I will be sure to be more graceful. It has been a beautiful journey but it’s very painful… in more ways than I would’ve imagined.

You are most welcome.

It’s a lovely and painful thing to break and reshape Noel’s belief systems. What we believe is very much a part of who we are. When we share that belief with others, it’s community. When we impart those beliefs into behaviors, it creates what we know as culture.

Our families are built on many stones of those beliefs. Some of those sit so very embedded into community and culture that it is nigh painful to question, let alone walk another path.

Where you are is… where you are. It’s not bad or good. It is where you are.

From what is both beautiful and terrifying about this for you, I’m sure others will find avenues for themselves to grow in their own faith, and influence their communities and cultures.

To quote a younger version of me, “keep growing forward.”

I think the principle in Romans 14:5-6 is apropos here:

"One person considers one day to be above another day. Someone else considers every day to be the same. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind. Any followers who count one day more important than another day do it to honor their Lord."

Non-Jewish Christians were never commanded to observe Passover, or Christmas. 1 Corinthians 5:7 states that Christ is our Passover. However, given all that Passover symbolizes concerning Jesus, I don't see how it would be harmful to celebrate it, as long as you keep Christ at the center of it. It would be the same with Christmas, in my mind. Just remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Some people, like Jehovah's Witnesses, don't celebrate birthdays. I've heard it said that only pagan kings in the Bible celebrated their birthday, like pharaoh or King Herod. However, when Jesus was born, His Father threw Him the biggest birthday party in the universe, complete with The Star of Bethlehem, choirs of angels, and visitation by shepherds and eventually the Magi. So if you look at it this way, God thought Christmas was a big deal!

So whether you observe Passover or Christmas, or not, do it for the Lord's sake, and you will be all right, and no one should judge you for it (Romans 14:5-12).

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your kindness in taking the time to respond.

Your words have helped bring me peace in so many ways. I sincerely appreciate you! 🥰❤️💫