Holiday beliefs

[Tatia]

I've been toying with the idea whether to post this or not but everyone is so kind and accepting that I just felt like sharing with you. We're a Pagan family and are raising our DD and my eldest DD with our spiritual beliefs although we're not overly religious at all. I know I've mentioned it here and there but wasn't sure how many people here knew so just thought I'd mention it first so my post makes sense! Anyhoo...

At this time of year, we celebrate Yule or the Winter Solstice. It generally occurs on or about the 21st of December and is the longest night of the year. What we are actually celebrating is the rebirth of the Sun because from that night, the days gradually begin to lengthen. It's a time of hope and peace and real introspection about your life, your values and your goals.

It's not unlike Christmas and New Year really, in that respect. :)

Most Christmas traditions (such as Christmas trees, mistletoe and holly and the burning of Yule logs) spring directly from Pagan practice of years gone which makes it easy for us to incorporate Christmas celebrations into our family life, as well.

For a few years, we did all our celebrating on Yule night including gifts and dinner and all but alas, we've lived in this reality all our lives and felt very strange to be finished with our holiday when everyone else was still celebrating. :laughing: Plus, Christmas for me is all about family and love and being together. So now, we have a special Yule dinner, do a small family ritual and then open one gift to mark the Solstice. Then we have a Christmas celebration like most everyone else - brussel sprouts and alcohol and piles of gifts and far too much food! :laughing:

So thank you for listening and not threatening to burn me at the stake. :rolleyes: :laughing:

Brightest blessings to you and your's this holiday season!

[Tatia]

Never mind, Mods. Please leave this thread in The Lounge now as some of the lovely responses are from non-Greenies and I feel very comfortable with it here. :)

[Pipsqueak]

I think thats lovely Tatia and its each to their own. And lucky you - you get to celebrate twice (sort of).

Glad you felt you could post about it. I must admit I have always been interested in paganism. An ex-boyfriends ex (complicated) was/is Pagan and I found her fascinating.

[Hebs]

i am not religious AT ALL

very interested in the whole pagan thing, my son is on countdown to the solsistis(spl??)

[Spangles]

That sounds really lovely and makes a lot of sense.

I shouldn't think anyone would worry about you posting about your beliefs.

We celebrate Christmas but aren't actually religious so that's quite bad in a lot of people's eyes I guess. I'm not sure what I believe and my husband's not bothered! We take it as a time to celebrate family and friendship and to show people we love and appreciate them more than anything else.

I think your celebration sounds truly lovely.

x

[Tatia]

and I found her fascinating
We generally are. :littleangel:

The actual Solstice (the astronomical event) is on the 21st this year at 17:47. It's been on the 22nd, I think, for the past couple years. Is your son a Paganling, Hebs?

[Hebs]

We generally are. :littleangel:

The actual Solstice (the astronomical event) is on the 21st this year at 17:4. It's been on the 22nd, I think, for the past couple years. Is your son a Paganling, Hebs?

i think he is :laughing:
he's very tuned into the earth and it's weird ways

he's not counting down to christmas but is counting down to the solstice!

very interested in discussing this in more details :thumbsup:

[Tatia]

Happy to oblige. I can also point you in the direction of decent books to read, not rubbishy bandwagon stuff.

This has also reminded me that I promised Sarah some info about celebrating the Sabbats with children!! Sarah, refresh my memory as to what you are after, please.:o

[LittleMissSparkles]

thank you for sharing :thumbsup:

we celebrate christmas but probably for the worng reasons as we are not relgious in any way shape or form, but everyone has their own beliefs.

one of my mindee's is french and mum told me they celebrated st stephens day ( was it cant remember ) yesterday and gave small presents to the children

xxx

[Mollymop]

I think I am kinda of a Pagan too Tatia!:)

[Twinkles]

I think that's lovely Tatia.

Speaking as a practising Christian I believe the love ,peace, family values and celebrating that is Christmas can be/should be/are celebrated by almost everyone whatever their beliefs.

I promise not to burn you at the stake as long as you promise not to throw me to the lions :laughing:

[ajs]

that was very interesting tatia

most of you know i am Jewish so shouldn't be celebrating Christmas at all but we do

as long as you all agree with me that the Messiah hasn't actually appeared yet

[Twinkles]

as long as you all agree with me that the Messiah hasn't actually appeared yet


http://bestsmileys.com/tongs/3.gif

[wendywu]

We have a CM in our group who is Pagan or a white witch. She has some lovely red velvet robes that she puts on when she does story telling at toddlers. The kids love it :laughing:

[RachelE]

Thank you for sharing your beliefs with us.

Its really good to learn about how other families celerate different events and festivals.

Sometimes we hear of different things, but dont actually know a lot about them and some people are too afraid to ask.

I hope you have a lovely evening on the 21st. I too will celebrate looking forward to the days getting lighter!

Hope you all have a lovely time together. :)

Rachel x

[Hebs]

i think i might have been Pagan in a past life,

when i was a kid (3/4 yrs old) i used to talk to my mum about my past life, i would tell her things my mummy (then) used to make or do
if she was cooking i would say... my other mummy used to make it this way

i also told her that me and my mummy were killed in the lake (drowned) cos people thought we were witches.

I have no recollection of talking about these things but it's all documented in my medical records as it freaked my mum out so much that she took me to the dr's :o

[Blackhorse]

thank you for sharing :thumbsup:

we celebrate christmas but probably for the worng reasons as we are not relgious in any way shape or form, but everyone has their own beliefs.

one of my mindee's is french and mum told me they celebrated st stephens day ( was it cant remember ) yesterday and gave small presents to the children

xxx

it is St Nikolas day...we get little gift bags with manarins, nuts and chocolates..not sure if they get the same ''gifts'' in france.
It is a lovely day though..

and on the 5th of december in austria (and parts of switzerland and germany) we celebrate Krampus.
http://nirakatak.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/hochalmpass_2003_badhofgastein-1.jpg

the one with the beard is st nikolas and the others are all dressed as krampus
they go round the villages and scare people...they are even allowed to hit you if they get you.

children get presents both from krampus and st nikolas actually...krampus is for the naughty and st nikolas for the good ones...but actually each child gets from both

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus

sorry for posting this on your thread tatia, but it seemed to fit..
thanks for sharing your christmas traditions..it is very interesting...and I can sympathise how hard it is to try and fit one's own christmas traditions in with what the rest of the popultion are doing...like you said it would be odd to have your xmas over before everyone else..

[Tink]

What a lovely post. None of the children I look after are religious and I think it's very interesting learning about other cultures and beliefs.
Thank you for sharing yours with us and I hope you have a wonderful celebration and Christmas xx

[Tatia]

You guys have made me cry! In a good way, of course!! I've been practicing for about 15 years and we live fairly openly (except for my parents cos my father has very strong beliefs and could never understand so I choose to keep quiet and he chooses to ignore my peccadillos).


I promise not to burn you at the stake as long as you promise not to throw me to the lions
And you, Twinks, made me laugh out loud through the tears!


as long as you all agree with me that the Messiah hasn't actually appeared yet
He's not the Messiah! He's a very naughty boy! (sorry, just could NOT resist)

Blackhorse, thank you for sharing your beliefs. It was your thread about your Christmas tree that speaked this anyway. I love hearing about how people celebrate the world over!

Maybe I should do a bit for each of the 8 Pagan Sabbats, for anyone interested.

[singlewiththree]

I'm not religious but celebrate christmas as I see it as the spirit of family coming together and of St Nicholas. My DD aged 8 googled does santa exist on Friday and I ended up having to chat with her about it but she is even more excited now she knows the truth than when she believed in the red man :)

[Alibali]

Thanks for sharing, I do celebrate Christmas and we spend a lot of time talking about Jesus too (we are Christian) and although I can't agree with your beliefs, or ajs :eek: , I happily accept and applaud you for your beliefs.

At the heart of any celebration whether Christ is involved or not is the love and caring and sharing that you have all been talking about.

I hope that whatever our beliefs we continue to be blessed with the gifts of loving, caring an family.

xxx

[Pipsqueak]

:eek: :eek: Awww aren;t we having any burning at the stakes or throwing to the lions entertainment this year????:laughing: :laughing: spoilsports.

[Blackhorse]

:eek: :eek: Awww aren;t we having any burning at the stakes or throwing to the lions entertainment this year????:laughing: :laughing: spoilsports.

I see you are volunteering :clapping:
...which one is it going to be?

[Pipsqueak]

I see you are volunteering :clapping:
...which one is it going to be?

I don;t taste good bbq'd or mauled!!! lol

[ORKSIE]

What a lovely Thread I have thoroughly enjoyed reading each and every post.

We are not a religeous family either, we love to have the love of our family around us at christmas.

So on that note I hope you all enjoy yourselfs however you celebrate:clapping: :clapping:

[mama2three]

this is what i find so wonderful about christmas - almost everyone , despite our varied backgrounds , cultures , beliefs comes together to celebrate a time of family , peace and love.
I do think i find it even more special as a christian believing we are celebrating the birth of our saviour though!! If you intend to throw me to the lions could you ask them to just nibble a bit off my hips and bottom please? :laughing:

[nannymcflea]

Hi Tatia, thanks for sharing. My hubby has always called me a witch(in a nice way). I think Paganism holds more to people than a lot think as it covers many areas of people's beliefs about spiritulism. I think a lot of people are more Pagan than Christian in their ways when you read up on their beliefs.

Does that make sense?Probably not! Never be afraid of being who you are Tatia,enjoy your time with your family.:)

[Gizmo]

Thanks for sharing this, we arent a religious family but I have loved reading about everyones beliefs

[Heaven Scent]

that was very interesting tatia

most of you know i am Jewish so shouldn't be celebrating Christmas at all but we do

as long as you all agree with me that the Messiah hasn't actually appeared yet


What did I tell you in Nottingham!!!!!!:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

[Heaven Scent]

I believe that no matter what your religious belief (even if it is that you haven't got one) if you take a look at the celebration/festival you celebrate at this time of year and compare it to those of other beliefs you cannot but see a similar vein running through them - they are all festivals of light and of new life (despite the fact that the Messiah has actually arrived Amanda - you are just 2010 years out of date - you need to keep up girlie:laughing: :laughing: - I know I'm a Catholic who used to teach in a Jewish orthodox school). So you see no matter what your religion or not we all celebrate and look forward to the new year and the new life that comes with it!!!!!

[PixiePetal]

Very interesting thread, thanks Tatia for filling us in on your customs.:)

I was brought up in a catholic household but do not follow any religion myself.

In my local town I know of Pagans and I have read in the local paper about some of their celebrations. I am so pleased to be living in quite a diverse area of the country.

[Pudding Girl]

I'm not religious at all, I don't believe in any gods/Jesus etc, have very strong views on organised religion but I do do Christmas as to me it's about the food and family getting together and enjoying each others company.

I do feel an affinity with the Pagan way of doing things, based around seasons, nature etc but not to the extent of practising it.

Have a happy holidays everyone, whatever you are :D :thumbsup:

[Blackhorse]

I'm not religious at all, I don't believe in any gods/Jesus etc, have very strong views on organised religion but I do do Christmas as to me it's about the food and family getting together and enjoying each others company.

I do feel an affinity with the Pagan way of doing things, based around seasons, nature etc but not to the extent of practising it.

Have a happy holidays everyone, whatever you are :D :thumbsup:

that is pretty much me too actually...
most of the things I do as well because they are cultural traditions we grew up with and fond of..so to speak...and obviously the meaning of family get togethers etc...

very interesting thread this one

[mamasheshe]

Plus, Christmas for me is all about family and love and being together.


exactly what i think I'm not religious but celebrate christmas it certainly is a magical time of year what ever you believe. Very interesting thanks for your post

[jumpinjen]

Hi tatia,

I think that often , practising people, whatever their beliefs keep quiet a bit because of the fear of other people's assumptions about them. We are practising Christians but I admit I've hesitated about hanging a crucifix in my hallway in case Ofsted had a go about it or parents were put off!

I'm so glad for all the support you received here!

Happy Solstice, Jenni:)