Atheists approach religious holidays in a variety of ways. Many atheists ignore religious holidays because they wish to divest themselves of all the trappings of religion. Others rejects the holidays of some religions (Christianity and Christmas) in favor of the holidays of other religions (Nature religions and Winter Solstice). Still others go along with traditional religious holidays but observe them in a secular manner -- which is not unusual because so many religious holidays have become highly secularized today.
Holidays these days are pretty commercial but I wonder if any Atheists don't celebrate them due to their theistic origins and religious undertones.
How do you, personally, approach religious holidays and Christmas in particular? Do you ignore them because of their religious background and despite how commercial or secular they have become, or have you adopted a different strategy? Add your thoughts to the comments here or join the ongoing discussion in the forum.
Holidays. I can take them or leave them.
Usually, I celebrate them because taking a stand against them would upset others in my life who see it as a time to get together with friends or family. Since holidays don’t seem to be particularly religious anymore (especially within my circle of family and friends), and I agree with the excuse to spend time together so I don’t particularly mind “celebrating” them.
The commercialism of Xmas especially though, is another story. It makes me particularly nauseous in the face of most of the world’s populations who are having far from lavish celebrations.
A holiday is just a day off from work.
I was raised Catholic, and I’ve always done Christmas with the family. A friend of mine started throwing Solstice parties many years ago. That has almost become the focus of my holiday season. I like the naturalistic angle. I like to go out in the woods on the Solstice and admire the beauty of nature. I’d like to learn more about the pre-Christian “Yule” and other pagan holidays. I might like to adopt the one the requires me to believe the least absurd things.
i celebrate X-mas, or as i call it, gift giving day. Since it isn’t a Xian holiday anyway (it’s pagan), i don’t mind. i have no problem with turning my time into money and into gifts for the people i love. Halloween, i love. Easter(Austara) isn’t fun for adults, so it passes without notice.
Our heart just wasn’t in it this year. So, we’ve sent money to a soup kitchen and a free clinic. It isn’t a matter of seeking virtue points. It is just the endless accumulation is tiresome.
I have ignored religion-based holidays since the 1960s, especially the maudlin commercialism of xmas, even to the point of working those days. I’ve experienced difficulty as a nonconformist, especially in raising my children as atheists (they now thank me), and attracted very negative responses from believers (fired, scorned, et cetera). My amazement at the naive credulity of conformist society has grown over the years, especially since 911 has shown religion to be not merely an innocuous indulgence of fantasy but a very harmful element of society that should be ridiculed out of existence.
I was born jewish but became an atheist when I was 13. So Xmas was never “my” holiday. It was just a day off from work with all the stores closed. If I were dating a jewish woman, we would go to the movies in a jewish neighborhood.
Some relatives hosted a Passover seder in the 1980s and 1990s (it had good food, some of which I made) and I was able to see some people I rarely saw, so it was more of a party than a solemn event. But I was relieved when they stopped hosting it and never sought to get invited to another one hosted by others.
I used to buy soem holiday cards for others (some coworkers when I was working; I retired last year at age 45) but I stopped doing that.
Religious holidays don’t mean anything to me any more – except for the added traffic and parking on my street which has a church across from where I live.
I think that holidays are part of being human. Holidays don’t have to be religious, but they do mark some occasion. Birthdays & anniversaries are examples of personal occasions that humans share. Holidays are like communal or societal occasions.
Thanksgiving doesn’t need to have any religious over or undertone. Some people can give thanks to their god; others might just think about the founding of our nation; still others don’t give a thought to any of this and just pig out and watch football.
There are plenty of national holidays: memorial day, 4th of July, labor day… some of those dates might not spark any original meaning; they are days about going to the beach, barbecuing or hitting some sale.
Now, Christmas – with the name of Christ right in there – is the one causing confusion. But like these others, no one needs to think about the origin. This is a day to get together with friends and family, give gifts and make merry.
To me, these holidays would be religious is one tried to put a religious element in: prayer, mass, cross, crucifix…
But basically, humans are social creatures and I think we look for ways to bond with each other. Social occasions and holidays are one of those ways.
It may be that religious people cannot see the world any other way than through their religious lens, so they cannot imagine celebrating at Christmas without having some religion attached to it. So, the tree to them means Jesus; the wreath means Jesus; and so on – a conflation of these decorations with Christ. But I think it’s the same as going to the beach on memorial day without remembering why you have the day off. You just have the day off; why think about those who fought in wars? It may be that my analogy is not great because we don’t tend to “celebrate” memorial day. But some people do attend memorial day parades and hang a flag and visit cemeteries – while other people attend a barbecue.