Member- missjewels
- 4 years ago
- Wedding: September 2013
So I am pregnant with my first child and I have very strong feelings as does my husband on educating our children and showing them religions and beliefs outside of Christianity. Darling Husband is athiest and I am agnostic. For me, the idea of St Nick on Xmas delivering presents to good children or bad never sat right with me and I never really believed in him. Long story short, I celebrated every year with my 2 extremely spolied cousins. If there was not a ratio of 3-1 of them having more presents then me they would THROW A FIT and curse at their mother. Xmas was horrible. Then all day I would hear how Santa loved them more cause they got way more presents. My parents always taught me to be generious at Xmas and not everyone gets presents etc.
Anyways, I came up witht he idea for my children to write them a book to educate them on different holiday celebrations around the world, including Christmas and St Nick and what other believe enad why they believe it, ending with what mommy and daddy believe. My hope is to educate our children on other cultures and to show them Christmas should be about generosity and helping others and not about getting a mass amount of gifts under the tree…and also, showing them not everyone gets gifts and it doesn’t mean they were bad, it means mommy and daddy don’t always have the money too..this was one of my biggest pet peeves with Xmas, was I wanted to teach my kids not everyone gets gifts, and we need to help. Anyways, I have summarized what I wanted to say on each religion and wanted feedback on if I am phrasing the religious practices right…anything to add or delete or any other religious holidays around Christmas time to include.
Thank you in advance for any feedback!
“
Judaism
Jewish Festival of lights – People of the Jewish faith celebrate Hanukkah. They have a different calendar from Christians, and start their celebrations on the 25th day of their month Kislev. This is around our November-December. They celebrate a great victory that allowed them to reclaim their Temple and light their Menorah. A Menorah is a special candle holder that has 8 places to light candles, and the centre candle, or 9th one, is the helper candle that is lit to light all the other candles. You need oil to light the Menorah and when the Jewish people entered their Temple there was only enough oil to light their Menorah for one night. They lit the Menorah and miraculously it stayed lit for 8 entire days. Since then, during the Jewish Festival of lights which lasts 8 days, the family gathers on each night to light another candle. The centre candle is lit and that lights the first candle on the first night. Then on the second night the first and second candle are lit, and so on until the eighth night when all candles are lit. Each of these nights the family exchange small gifts with one another and on the eight night a great feast is had.
Islam
Muslims celebrate Ramadan – they celebrate Mohammad who had their religious book, the Koran, given to him by God. Like Moses was given the 10 commandments in Christianity, Mohammad was given the Koran by God. Islam has a different Calendar from Christians and Judaism as well. The celebration of Ramadan begins at the first sight of the Ramadan moon and changes each year. Muslims celebrate Ramadan by not eating or drinking during daylight hours for the period of the Holiday. But when the sun sets, families gather and feast with special treats and food reserved for Ramadan only. At the end of Ramadan, a celebration of Eid al-Fir and ending to the daylight fasting happens. A great celebration is had by family gathering.
Christianity
Christians celebrate on December 25th the birth of Baby Jesus. Jesus, is believed to be the son of God. His mother, Mary, as visited by an Angel who asked her to bring God into the world through his son, Jesus. Mary agreed, and her and her husband Joseph waited the months until Jesus would be born. God felt that people were losing their faith in him and he wanted to show them his goodness through Jesus and have Jesus lead people back to Christianity. On what is believed by Christians to be December 25, Mary gave birth to a little boy named Jesus. Jesus would grow up and would help the poor and sick. We call Christmas, Christmas because another name for Jesus is Christ, so it is “Christ’s Day”.
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is not based in religion, but is celebrated alongside a traditional Christmas Holiday. Santa Claus or Saint Nicolas, was a Christian who spent his life giving away his money to children in poor areas of the world. Over the years, people started seeing him as a large bearded man in a red suit who would visit all the homes in the world on Christmas Eve and deliver presents to all the Children.
What Mommy and Daddy Believe
<br />There are millions of children around the world who do and do not celebrate what we know as Christmas. Some children receive gifts, some do not. Some mommy and daddy’s can only give small gifts to their children because it costs a lot of money to buy presents. We want you to celebrate the holiday Christmas by being generous and helping others. Each year, we will donate some of your toys that you do not need anymore to children who may not be able to get nice presents like you. By you doing this, they can wake up like you on Christmas morning and have presents to open and you will make them happy by sharing what you have. Christmas-time is about family, sharing, and celebrating and being thankful for what you have and sharing with others who do not have as much some of what you have.”
