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Behatzlacha-S

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:21 pm


A shortening/lengthening of what Neuf is going on about:

http://www.meridiangraphics.net/lupercalia.htm
PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:29 pm


Ah. Most interesting.

Lumanny the Space Jew

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:23 am


Lumanny
Christian Holiday. Yet neraly all the Jews I know IRL celebrate it. Today at school there was all kinds of candy and stuff among them and got all self-righteous about it when asked to stop.

IT IS A CHRISTIAN HOLIDAY ABOUT A PRIEST.

I've heard we have a similar day of our own on the Eleventh of Av or something like that...

But seriously, it is as Christian as is Christmas in almost all ways.

That's like saying Halloween is a pagen holiday.

V-day and Halloween are no longer religeous holidays. I mean, how many people really know what either is about? All Valentine's Day really is a chance to buy your girlfriend flowers and chocolate, nothing more.

Even if anyone knew or cared about St. Valentine, he was a dude who did nice things - I think. Like I said, who knows who he was?

So, the holiday is based off a nice man. Should we hold it against him he was a Christian? Should we cancel the 4th of July because the founding fathers were religious too?
PostPosted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:54 am


We absolutely shouldn't hold it "against" anyone, nice or not, holiday or not, if they're not Jewish.

However, since the holiday is not Jewish, we also shouldn't try to horn in on it, any more than we appreciate it when non-Jews try to celebrate Passover. It's one thing to invite a non-Jew to a Jewish seder (and I do this -- there's been at least one non-Jew at my seder table every year that I've had my own seder table!), and it's another thing for non-Jews to co-opt our religious celebrations.

Christians have just as much a right to be a little miffed when non-Christians celebrate the Christian holidays, such as St. Patrick'sDay, St. Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas, and so on. Same as Pagans/Wiccans have a right to be upset when non-Pagans/Wiccans try to go out and celebrate Eostre/Ostara, Solstice, Mabon, Samhain, and so on. (I am not getting into how related or unrelated these things are, because I don't speak for either Christians or Pagans, and I want to let them speak for their own celebrations.)

When people outside of a religion take that religion's holidays, those holidays are changed. St. Patrick's Day is the celebration of the life and deeds of a Christian saint, just as St. Valentine's Day is the celebration of the life and deeds of a Christian saint, just as Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, just as Easter is the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus. When non-Christians celebrate those days, they turn into celebrations of candy, gift-giving, commercialism, wearing certain clothes or colors, and so on.

Is that what serious Christians -- meaning, Christians who spend time thinking about their faith, contemplating their beliefs, deciding how to live by them -- want for their religious holidays? I bet it's not. I know I, for one, don't want them to turn Passover into a celebration of Jesus (yes, they do, and no, I don't get it), so why should they let us turn their holidays into a free-for-all candy-fest? And why should we disrespect serious Christians by doing it, just because it's fun to do? That's no way to respect them, any more than their proselytizing attempts are a way for them to respect us.

Divash
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