What do you celebrate?

[tears_of_ashes]

Choose in the poll what you worship, please feel free to mention any that I may not have :boquet:

[semi]

I'm religious and spiritual, but I don't celebrate any particular day. I try to celebrate every day.

[Xirian]

I celebrate italian pagan holidays.

[phoenixblayze]

i celebrate pagan holidays, and get together with my family for thanksgiving and christmas. usually we will celebrate yule just with my husband and kid, and then christmas with the rest of the family. we had to make a compromise

[Pesha]

I am a bit offended that you could put xian and Muslem and Buddist, but were not interested in typing a choice for Jewish holidays. Be that as it may, I celebrate other. I am Jewish by birth and so my family celebrates Hanukka, and the other major holidays of the Jewish faith. I incorperate my backround and heritage with my Wiccan/Witch beliefs.

BB
DS.

[HorseCrow]

I am surprised there wasn't an option of "Pagan holidays"- so I voted "other". I celebrate the Sabbats and Esbats. And the christian ones to some degree due to tradition, not faith.

[LadyCelt]

Christian holidays, but I am also getting into the wheel of the year

[raminda]

I am surprised there wasn't an option of "Pagan holidays"- so I voted "other". I celebrate the Sabbats and Esbats. And the christian ones to some degree due to tradition, not faith.

Same with me. Christian holidays hold no religious value with me but I think it would be odd to stop celebrating them (plus it's expected by family) so I join in. I also celebrate Pagan holidays.

[Makas]

We celebrate Christian holidays but not in the Christian way. In the American way I guess. _whistle_ And Pagan holidays. So I voted "Christian" and "Other"

[frigga]

I try to celebrate every day.
Love that, me too! Aside from that though, I celebrate the wheel of the year under xian titles. I grew up in a family trad. and we always talked about the solstices and equinoxes that corresponded to the mainstream celebrations, and their meanings to the earth. As a matter of fact my imediate family would do our own "thing" a few days before going to all the other relatives for the holidays. I voted both other and xian.

[Astara Seague]

I celebrate Christen celebrations with my family, because they are, I d love to forget about Christmas though!!!:excuseme: I also celebrate the great sabbats and a few of the wiccan special days :heartthro

[Merrilyn]

I chose Christian and Other as well. I love to celebrate the "traditional holidays" with my family and enjoy celebrating the Sabbats/Esbats on my own. No matter what the background, I see the holidays as days of closeness, fellowship and time for family.

[Flaire-FireStar]

My family celebrates Christian holidays...I just recognise the day, but don't really celebrate.

[Happy Shrew]

Very boiled-down Christian holidays (Christmas is mainly for family time, for example) and Hannuka because my brother was curious about it at a young age. We recite the prayers while lighting the Menorah and contemplate the symbolism, making it the most religious-ish holiday we celebrate.

We also did Passover once, but when we got the horseradish to represent the bitterness of slavery and my dad and brother were both wolfing it down, we realized that maybe some of us had missed the point.

Though not usually tied to a specific holiday, my mom also likes to make traditional latkes. And no, we aren't Jewish at all.

[Jenne]

Well, because my il's and my hubby are Muslim (hubby's "historically"/"culturally" Muslim, not spiritually--he's more agnostic now on that scale), we do celebrate Nowroz, Ramadan and Eid when we are with them.

We also do the "usual" American hols w/my fam as well--Christmas, T Day, Easter, etc.

Then, for myself, with friends or alone, I do the Wheel of the Year sabbats.

[IvyWitch]

Most Christian and Jewish holidays I will celebrate with my family and in-laws respectively, but it isn't a religious celebration for me (or for my h2b's family really). I do celebrate the Pagan holidays as a religious celebration.

I also sometimes celebrate some Japanese holidays even though I am not Japanese. I have some young girls in my family so I will usually throw them a little party for "Hina Matsuri", and my friends and I take a pilgrimage to the nearby mountains for the "Sakura Matsuri".

I also like to make up days to celebrate. Like "no laundry day" and "shopping day" :toofless: :fpeace: :havinapar

[WokeUpDead]

I'd rather not celebrate anything. It would be so much nicer if people only celebrated holidays they actually believe in. I don't see what a bunny and plastic eggs have to do with Easter. Christmas is supposed to be about Jesus and not trees and fat guys in robes. I'm not so sure St. Patrick would be glad to know that people use his holiday as an excuse to get wasted either.

[Cyzarine]

I voted Christian and other. Other for the basic over heard of holidays like Samhain, Lammas, etc. Non path based holidays. Christian because they are pagan holidays...Easter, etc.

[LyraDragonStar]

Christian Holidays and Other.

Mostly Christian because my family is Chrisitan...and then I have begun to celebrate the Wiccan Sabbats.

[stormmoon54]

I was raised keeping a few xian holidays for my parents, but now my children and I celebrate pagan sabbats and esbats. Although to keep the peace, and an opportunity to party with my sister, I go to my folks for Christmas.

[SkySilver]

I chose "christian celebrations" because that's what I'm used to. But I've been incorporating the pagan holidays into it more and more everyday! :broomride

[WitchOfEndor]

My daughters & I observe pagan holidays now. Some xtian, but not because of faith unless faith in Santa Claus & the Easter Bunny counts.:bubbles:

[Ishtara]

I celebrate Kemetics holidays and festivals, in particular Wep Renpet (the Kemetic New Year), the Opet festival and the holidays associated with the Names of Netjer I serve, namely Djehuty, Ma'at and Yinepu.

I will celebrate Christmas this year because my mother will be staying with me in late December and she asked if we could celebrate it. Had I been by myself that day, I would not have done anything special.

[SilentDreams]

I celebrate Christian holidays with my family(they know I'm pagan). I also celebrate pagan holidays by myself.

[mandalamama]

i celebrate the Pagan holidays. there are a lot of obscure Buddhist holidays and it's overwhelming. Buddha's birthday is April 28 (although different sects list a different date, told you it's confusing!) the Pagan holidays end up being Buddhist holidays for me because the two work so well together. i mix symbols together ... the Goddess is represented by Kuan Yin in our household. at Beltane, i use yin-yang symbols. i just love that Pagan holidays follow the seasons, we basically celebrate the turning of the seasons :smile:

[ObsessedFae86]

I celebrate xtian holidays and pagan ones..:)

[Anyanka]

I celebrate Christian Holidays such as Christmas...though my family's not that big on celebrating Easter :confused:

[LostSheep]

Well, not having kids, or little brothers or sisters, I can escape from the pressure to celebrate holidays that don't really (any longer) have any significance for me, so I'll mark Yule but ignore Christmas altogether!

(and that goes for New Year too... that has no significance either, it's just a number, so.)

[forbidden_vengence]

I celebrate the christian holidays of Christmas and Easter but it's because my family is christian and I get presents and candy. But of course I celebrate, as much as I can, of the Sabbats, I don't do the esbats though. I would if I had enough time in my busy, busy life, lmao.

[Mouse]

I voted other.
I'm trying to make my celebrations of pagan holidays more meaningful and *trys to find the word* pronounced or hyped comes close i guess.
I'm trying to phase all xtain holidays out of my life, although i will attend the family dinners, I no-longer go to church and am trying to encorage my family not to give me gifts, i'm also slowing down on the amount of gifts i give them (I still give them something, but i don't spend six months in preperation anymore). I hate christmas for personal reasons unrelated to religon anyway, but i dont think it's fair that i should have to respect their beliefs and pretend to share them, even just for one day, when mine are constantly being scrutinised. I will celebrate christmas this year though, because it will be the last one for mum and I don't want to upsett anyone.

[Serendipity]

We celebrate:

Thanksgiving - cause I like the food

Halloween (not Samhain) - because I have a child (and also it's my favorite time of year)

Commercialized Christmas - because I like shopping, decorating and I have a child

New Years Eve (Dec 31st) - because it's one of the rare times I drink

Easter- because I have a child

4th of July, because I like the purddy fireworks.

I don't do anything religious because I'm not religious. I do the fun stuff for my daughter. And don't get me wrong, it's fun for me and I'm glad my daughter has brought back the childhood fun in my life.

[Faelon_Moon_Hawk]

Choose in the poll what you worship, please feel free to mention any that I may not have :boquet:

i celebrate your general neopagan holidays: Samhain, yule, imbolc, etc. I do however, also celebrate christian holidays as well w/ my family...not in a religious sense tho, but more as the commercialized version of those holidays (x-mas, easter, etc).

[OpenHands]

I voted for Christian and Other.

I join in on the Christmas and Easter festivities with my family (quite secular in nature so no big conflicts) and I celebrate some of the other standard American holidays like Thanksgiving, Halloween, July 4th, etc. I also observe reconstructed Canaanite festivals as my religious holidays.

[Agaliha]

I'm not religious but I am spiritual.
I don't really celebrate anything in a religious sense.

My family for some reason celebrates Christmas. We're not even Christian--any of us so it holds no religious meaning for us...we just do it, heh.
We do the decorations, dinner and open gifts on the night of the 24th-- never the 25th.
For Easter we decorate eggs...have a dinner. Again no religious meaning for us.
We have Thanksgiving dinner.
Partake in 4th of July, Holloween and other various holidays.

I don't celebrate Pagan sabbats in a religious sense.
I recognize and honor the seasons change and the Earth in my own way that isn't bound by one night or one holiday.
I decorate my Altar with the seasons theme-- right now Autumn- my favorite season. I have decorations and things for Winter, Summer and a little for spring.
That's about it.

I'm not so religious...I don't even really believe in dieties.
I see myself more as spiritual.

[Zephyrstorm]

As a Kemetic Orthodox, I celebrate Kemetic Holidays, like Wep Ronpet, Opet, The Procession of Herhert, The Drunkeness of Sekhmet...
As a (Wiccan-influenced) Pagan, I celebrate Samhain etc.

Christmas is the only "religious" holiday that my family gets into, and it's more of a chance to get together eat and visit than anything else.

[Doodlebug]

I celebrate the Catholic holidays (which would be the Christian option) and also major US holidays such as Thanksgiving and Independence Day. :)

[SylverStar]

Uh I celebrate whatever I feel like celebrating...yeah I'm a brat...this last year the only holiday I did anything for was Lent...so um yeah...lol. I would love to celebrate hindu holidays...but I can't figure out that dang calender...lol...nor do we have a temple or the like in my town.

[Cassie]

I celebrate Pagan holidays and Christmas (because there is no escaping it-and I think of it as Yule).

[Heart of Isis]

I don't celebrate anything anymore. I do not acknowledge nor recognize modern day corporate holidays like xmas, thanksgiving or even halloween.

I used to celebrate Halloween/Samhain, but have stopped as of 4 years ago due to the fact that there is absolutely nothing to do around it. I just remember the good old days when one could stretch it out across 2 or 3 days and enjoy a bit of community service, then a bit of ritual, then a good goth/darkwave concert or something. You won't find any of that today, it's all gone.

Don't even get me started on xmas. Suffice it to say I do not celebrate greed, violence, caste system building, fake goodness, blind obligatory consumerism, capitalism and the religous thing. That is what xmas is all about period, end of story.
No, I do not recognize or celebrate Yule either because there is no such thing as Yule. Yes, I have tried celebrating and embracing it before and from what I have seen and experienced Yule is merely a cheap artificial answer to christianity's (state religion) xmas. I also find it somewhat hypocritical as many of the same bad elements of xmas are incorporated.

That being said I am currently looking for true "holidays" to learn about and participate in celebrating. I'm already interested in some of the Persian holidays such as Norooz (New year) which I have not yet "fully" experienced, and the fall harvest celebration (That's a biggie). I haven't experienced that one yet at all, but would love the opportunity and that may be coming for me next year. In my study of those two holidays so far I find them to be about exactly what they are about. No extras, no false agendas, no games, no religious attachment of any type. Just a gathering together with a focused pure celebration and a drive to enjoy life (at least at that moment), plain and simple. Isn't that what holidays are supposed to really be about?

I wish I could work out the ancient Egyptian holidays, but we don't know 97% of them and what we do know lacks a lot of detail and is pure guess work. If I ever find anyone who has studied them and put them to the test I would be all ears holding a note pad and pencil.


I do observe to the best of my ability the pagan spring holidays still and the fall equinox. I wish I could observe the winter equinox, but nobody is interested. (There are only about 2 or 3 practicing pagans in my whole area and getting together is a challenge).
I do NOT celebrate alone. That is dangerous for me and could end up deadly so I steer clear of that.

I live in a sea of fundamentalist christian/money churches. I call them cults. (You know god is money and money is god. Your spirituality is directly proportionate to the amount of money or what material possessions you have....you get the idea).

So yes I get called scrooge and every other name in the book, but I would much rather be all those things than be a hypocrite or be ingenuine with a complete lack of integrity.

HOI

[sidhe]

Pagan holidays...and every day that I'm alive. :)

[Whitewolf]

I was adopted when I was a baby and was raised as a Reform Jew. I still celebrate some holidays, like Hanukkah and Passover. Lately I've been drifting away from a lot of the holidays [with the exception of Hanukkah] and my religion. I celebrate Halloween. This year,for the first time, I also celebrated Samhain [a week after Halloween]. I was confused when the exact date was because someone had mentioned that Samhain fell on November 6th or 7th this year. Yule was a new experience for me. This is also the first year I've celebrated it. I went to a circle, raised energy and honored the God and Goddess. I've never felt so serene and calm as when I was at that circle. I felt like I was coming home. Next year I'm also going to be celebrating Imbolc, Ostara, Midsummer, etc.


-Jessica [aka Whitewolf]

[StarSpiral]

I celebrate the Wiccan/Neo-Pagan Wheel of the Year holidays (Solstices, Equinoxes and Cross-Quarters) as religious festivals with my partner and Pagan (and Pagan-friendly) friends and the major Christian holidays (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving) as secular/family holidays with my extended family (who are Catholic).

[Kittah]

i celebrate pagan holidays, and get together with my family for thanksgiving and christmas. usually we will celebrate yule just with my husband and kid, and then christmas with the rest of the family. we had to make a compromise

Yeah that, exactly (except in my case it's kidS not kid :hahugh: )

[LostSheep]

Most of the major Christian holidays are based on pagan origins, so I don't think there's any contradiction in celebrating them, because they're based on things like the solstices, equinoxes, rather than just being a date on a calendar, but I don't see any point in celebrating New Year because it's just a date on a calendar.

Besides, you don't get chocolate then.

[DoktorSick]

My wife and inlaws as well my mom and crew celebrate x-mas but
I celebrate that i get a week off with pay from my job which happens to be
the same time as X-mas.
I love halloween/samhain! costumes ,carving pumpkins,candy and the horror movie marathons that are on.
But it's like what cause friends and family to get together for some fun.I'll all
for it.

[Élistariel]

I celebrate the Christian holidays, because of family. I'd like to celebrate pagan ones, but a.) I never know when they are and b.) when I do know, I don't know what to do to celebrate.

[Little Billy]

I celebrate SLACK. I DON'T celebrate slack-sucking holidays like Christmas. Christmas is, to me, nothing more than a good representation of all that is wrong with Western civilization.

Spend days slogging through smelly crowds of people in malls looking for gifts. Traffic at those malls seems to be deliberately mismanaged to maximize misery.

Stoopid bloody Christmas tunes, played over and over again.

Then, of course, there's the whole "getting up early" thing. Screw that. At Little Billy's House, when he has the kids, Christmas occurs approximately "whenever Billy feels like it", usually around 2PM on Christmas Eve. So far, I have never heard a complaint from the kids.

And my wife's comments on the situation are usually muted by giving her the jewelry FIRST. Little Billy is nobody's fool.

Then there's Thanksgiving. That's when we commemorate thanking the Indians from saving us from starvation by giving them blankets loaded with smallpox. Still, it kicks much ass, unless you are the cook(or the turkey). Any holiday that gets you a 4 day weekend and doesn't involve bad Dolly Parton songs can't be all bad.

I don't know much about Pagan holidays, so I can't say too much about them.

Or kill me.

[Novembers River]

We celebrate commercialized Christmas. Like others I love the shopping, gift giving, decorating, and dinners. We also do Thanksgiving and Easter, but only because my Mom always makes a meal and has the family over. If it were just up to me and my hubby we would only do non-religious Christmas.

Personally I also observe the wheel of the year. I don't do much as of yet, but I do have a small, personal observance on these holidays. Hopefully our house will be in order soon and I can actually do more decorating in general and for the holidays!

[serenarian]

Pagan holidays, and Christian holidays with my non-pagan family.

[Scarletswalk]

Christmas and other spiritual holidays like Samhain and Easter.

[Fire's Shadow]

I will celebrate a holiday every now and then. I don't mind getting time off for them, either.

[David19]

I celebrate Christmas (althogh i don't think it's in a religous way, as i don't go to Church or anything, since i've never been), i haven't celebrated any 'pagan' holidays yet, well i did once, it was sabbat, i think it was Beltine but i can't remember, exactly, i want to celebrate some more but i guess i'll have to wait till i find a path (but i do want to celebrate Halloween/Samhain).

[Tigerlily]

Pagan holidays.

[mtpathy]

I tend to celebrate the changing of seasons,instead of celebrating
a certain day.

[Kylie]

The seasons, anniversaries of important things.

And I give gifts for Christmas just to shut people up.

[talamh]

Has anyone else noticed that the per centage total adds up to 142.71 per cent????? I know sports heros always give "110 per cent". Maybe pagans have a similar concept of 100 per cent values. But hey, I never did enjoy my stats courses.

[Arion]

I really only acknowledge the Sabbats in the Wheel of the Year. My family gets together on the Christian ones, but there's nothing particularly religious about them. Once I get out of high school and have a life of my own, i do not intend to continue "celebrating" the Christian holidays.

[Kylie]

Has anyone else noticed that the per centage total adds up to 142.71 per cent????? I know sports heros always give "110 per cent". Maybe pagans have a similar concept of 100 per cent values. But hey, I never did enjoy my stats courses.

:lol:
That's just because you can pick more than one.

Funny, though.

[Tigerlily]

I really only acknowledge the Sabbats in the Wheel of the Year. My family gets together on the Christian ones, but there's nothing particularly religious about them. Once I get out of high school and have a life of my own, i do not intend to continue "celebrating" the Christian holidays.

100% agree--same with me too. My boyfriend's family is Hindu and I will most likely move out with him, I would like to maybe celebrate a few Hindu holidays (they sound fun with all the special foods :) ) .

[PeatBog]

Samhain (Halloween) :ghostie: , Thanksgiving, Yule (Christmas :hrmm: ) :frosty: :elf: , Ostara (Easter), and the other seasonal celebrations.

[Amber Wynd]

I celebrate a mishmash of Christian, pagan and Discordian holy days.

[Drake Montague]

Well, my wife, and I are still in the broom closet. So we celebrate the christian holidays with our familys (more for the time with the familys than the actual holiday). And we celebrate the Sabbats, and the Moons with our Coven.

:cheers:

[Mishka]

secular christmas
hanukkah and passover w/ friends
secular halloween
Thanksgiving

...and life every day.

[fangedeshana]

I celebrate Christmas and Easter with my family and my partners family.

I celebrate the seasonal changes (Equinoxes and Solstices), Birthdays, Life Changes (Comming of Age, Pregnancy, Menopause, etc), Birthdays, Anniversaries (Deaths and Marriages) as well as specific lessons and chapters ending, and new ones beginning.

I celebrate Hallow's Eve and Spring Festival, a time of death and reflection and a time of rebirth and new goals.

And I celebrate anything else as much as I can inbetween ;)