Happy Holidays to all our atheist friends

S

Shirley

Well-known Member
Whatever you believe or don't believe, I wish for you and your loved ones health, hope, and happiness for the holidays and always.

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I too wish everyone a Happy Holiday season!

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And Happy Holidays to all of you folks too! If you're spending it with family, may there be lots of love and peace around your table and if you're choosing to spend it quietly at home, may you also find peace and joy in the simplicity of it and I hope you 'lone wolves' have a few special people call to wish you well and just to chat! Just to remind you that they care you know! So Merry Christmas one and all!
 
Christmas is for everyone.

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Thoughts on celebrating a 'non-Christian Christmas' in Australia

Celebrating a 'non-Christian' Christmas

Date December 23, 2014 - 6:19AM
  • (29)Marissa Calligeros


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Muslim Waleed Aly started celebrating Christmas with his Christian in-laws once he met his wife. But steers clear of the ham.

Like many other Australian families this week, the Vemulas are preparing for a big feast come Thursday.
But the Vemula's will be a largely vegetarian affair; no Christmas turkey or ham here. The Vemulas are Hindus.
However, they enjoy celebrating the festive season with the rest of the country.

Rama Prasad Vemula and his family will take advantage of free public transport available on Christmas Day and catch the 9am V-Line train to the beach at Warrnambool, with eskies and bags laden with large pots of curry, rice and samosas.
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"About 100 Hindus will go to Warrnambool," Mr Vemula said. "We will have lots of food."

He said the train to Warrnambool would become a sea of colour with many women in traditional Indian dress.
"We all get the train and some sing and dance on the train," he said. In previous years, an eighth carriage has had to be added to the Melbourne to Warrnambool train to accommodate the number of daytrippers on the free Christmas Day service.

Other Hindus also head to Lake Pertobe at Warrnambool, for more feasting, singing and dancing.
"We will also have a VB (Victorian Bitter, beer)," Mr Vemula said. The Hindus are not alone. Many Muslims and Buddhists also celebrate Christmas without compromising their own faith, if only seizing the public holiday to spend time with family and friends. Some non-Christian religions explictly honour Jesus. Many Hindus accept Jesus as divine, as part of their wider Hindu pantheon, while for Muslims, he is one of the five holiest prophets.

Yet Muslim television presenter, commentator and academic Waleed Aly recalls spending many Christmases as a child thoroughly bored. "The shops are closed, TV programming is possibly the worst that it is this time of year, and all your friends have got stuff to do with their families," he said. "I always saw Christmas Day as the day before the Boxing Day Test (Cricket match lasting 5 days). " One year, Aly held a "non-Christmas" party with his friends, "because we just had nothing else to do", although he admits the picnic in the park would have looked a lot like a Christmas barbecue.

Christmas Day changed vastly for Aly when he met his wife of 13 years who is Christian. "So my children are receiving Christmas presents this year," he said. "I actually think I'm getting presents too." Aly will join his in-laws for a Christmas lunch, but will savour the seafood on offer rather than the ham.

Michael Wells and his wife and children will also celebrate Christmas, despite being Buddhist. Mr Wells was Christian before marrying his Malaysian Buddhist wife.

"It's pretty hard to ignore Christmas when you have children," he said, referring to his young son and daughter. "Yes, we have a Christmas tree . . . and when the kids were smaller Father Christmas definitely had to come . . .

"But there's a certain joyous energy about Christmas that fits nicely with the Buddhist notion of Dana." Dana - the practice of giving - is one of the essential preliminary steps of Buddhist practice. "I also like Christmas pudding," Mr Wells said.

Sudaya, a practicing Buddhist from Thornbury, said she would also join her Christian family for Christmas lunch.
"I'm just happy to go along and be part of the family celebration," she said.

Monique Gaspar from the Jewish Ark Centre in Hawthorn East said her family would also get together on Christmas Day.
This year, Christmas will fall only two days after the end of the Jewish celebration Hanukkah, which commemorates the victory of the Jews over the Greek-Syrians in 165 BCE and the subsequent liberation of the Temple of Jerusalem. "Even though we don't celebrate Christmas, we just get together anyway, because everything is closed. And when Hanukkah falls around Christmas, as it has this year, a lot of people have 'Chrismakkah' where they combine the two. We don't necessarily celebrate Christmas, but we get together . . . and have a traditional Jewish lunch of bagels with brisket, hummus and pickled vegetables; sometimes we will have a turkey, for fun."

Sarah Asher, from St Kilda East, said many Jews also seized the opportunity to visit Melbourne Zoo on Christmas Day, while the crowds were at bay. She said her family usually spent the week of Christmas camping at Wilsons Promontory National Park in the state's far south-east. "There's not many people there, so you don't have to compete for a campsite or the facilities," she said.
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However you choose to celebrate, with family or friends or in isolation, may you experience inner peace and tranquillity.
 
Happy Holidays to all -- no matter which or how you celebrate! What I like to say is Happy Winter so enjoy the beauty of the season from the safety of warm hearth and home and the warmth and good cheer friends and loved ones bring!
 
Oh, thank you...that was sweet.
If I ever take up religion as a hobby, I might join the Church of Apathetic Agnostics,
(we don't know and we don't care)
 
Loved the description of the holiday celebrations in Australia. I thought Hindus celebrated Diwali around Christmas time but I looked it us .& learned it is earlier in the fall. Well regardless of presence or absence of religious beliefs, I think indisputable fact of the return of the light at the solstice is worth celebrating!
 
Was trying to resist in replying to this Thread, but "what the heck"!
Don't have any atheist friends..........why should we, we are both Christians! So, it's a "Merry Christmas" to all our Christian friends.
 
Not "selfish", just not open to any kind of atheism! And, many atheist are selfish as well.........being they try to change signs posted about Christmas!

rkunsaw said:
Too many Christians have your selfish attitude. Too many Muslims have the same attitude.
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Christmas ceased being a religious holiday long ago - it is now more a consumer holiday yet still a time to celebrate life and to open our hearts and minds to all.
 
Say what you want and we, as Christians, WILL say what we want! Every church still has Christmas Eve Services.

Just PROTECTING my Faith, just like the atheist do.

PLEASE, let's now turn this Thread into a "bashing" one. Administrator's won't tolerate it and will close it!

Cookie said:
Christmas ceased being a religious holiday long ago - it is now more a consumer holiday yet still a time to celebrate life and to open our hearts and minds to all.
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I took this thread just for what it was, to wish a happy holiday season to all those who are not religious at all, and IMO it was very thoughtful of Shirley to do so. I join her in wishing a peaceful season and happy new year to everyone, regardless of their beliefs.
 
That's how I took it.. The Holiday Season belongs to EVERYONE.. AND everyone deserves peace and happiness.

It's sad when people look for reasons to be offended or defensive.
 
ClassicRockr said:
Not "selfish", just not open to any kind of atheism! And, many atheist are selfish as well.........being they try to change signs posted about Christmas!
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Lack of acceptance of others is a Christian tradition. Merry Christmas anyhow. i have no idea what you are talking about with the sign changing comment.
 

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