Ok lets start talking w/a controversial topic!

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Posted by anneandchris

you are right it is not the norm. I personally think that there are certain religious holidays that schools and offices should be closed (Easter, Passover, Yom Kippur, Christmas) the big ones.

I understand why offices and schools do not close for Hannakah just as they don't close for all saints day or other holidays). But if busniess close on Easter why not on passover?

I never understood why the jewish people in my office had to use a vacation day for certain holidays that are big and important.

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i guess the same reason why the banks arent closed and there IS mail on Jewish holidays but not christmas (easter sunday doesnt count because its sunday - no mail; no banks)

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Posted by iwannabmrsD

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Posted by ant n tilde

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Posted by WinterBride08

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Posted by Espo22

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Posted by Future Mulligan

i just read that this girl is obnoxious in her not believing in jesus and she is a jesus/god basher and then celebrates christmas....i can see how that could bother you. that would bother me too...i dont impose my beliefs (or lack of beliefs ) on anybody....and i dont think im right or wrong about what i believe in.....i keep my beliefs to myself and i dont mind that other people believe in other things....i think its great actually - that everyone chooses to believe what they want.....i dont like when people badmouth other peoples beliefs....who cares what other people believe? if you dont like it than you dont have to believe in it!


Oh and I wanted to ask a question abot Christmas and the birth of Jesus.....was Jesus actually supposed to born on December 25? I thought that the date was made up? and if its made up - than that is pretty stupid to me JMO

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this is what i was gonna post about...If youre religious then you know that christmas is not the actual birth of jesus, and even many non-religious people do know this so them celebrating christmas can have nothing to do with religion

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I 100% agree with this statement! I tried to skip around that, but that is why I feel christmas doesn't have much (if anything at all) to do with religion....

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I think that should be clarified to state that the majority has distorted Christmas to have nothing to do with religion but the actual holiday ( or holy day ) itself celebrates the birth of Christ, the whole reason ( or half the reason - Easter being the other half ) that all Christians are not Jewish

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in agreeemnt tilde, Christmas day, although not the actual day is the day that is recognized by the Christian community, nothing abnormal about this, we don't celebrate presidents day on any presidents actual birthday, and MLK day isn't on the actualy day he was born either.. it's the recognition of the day that counts..

i don't really understand how come 'non religious' people celebrate a religious holiday.. u can say u'r not religious but u get togehter with family and blah blah blah but why do it on the 25th of december? why not do it on the 12th of march?

anyhoo.. most schools although not closed on hanukkah (which is most likely due to the fact that hanukkah is a 7 day holiday not one) are closed on most other major jewish holidays.. even in districts where students are not jewish schools are closed on yom kippur, rosh hashannah and spring break revolves around passover, not easter.

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correct - this is due to the STAFF that would not be working

the reason why schools are not closed on hanukkah is not that it is a holiday that is 8 days instead of 1
it is because it is not a holiday where you are 'mandated' to go to temple

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Posted by iwannabmrsD

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in agreeemnt tilde, Christmas day, although not the actual day is the day that is recognized by the Christian community, nothing abnormal about this, we don't celebrate presidents day on any presidents actual birthday, and MLK day isn't on the actualy day he was born either.. it's the recognition of the day that counts..

i don't really understand how come 'non religious' people celebrate a religious holiday.. u can say u'r not religious but u get togehter with family and blah blah blah but why do it on the 25th of december? why not do it on the 12th of march?

anyhoo.. most schools although not closed on hanukkah (which is most likely due to the fact that hanukkah is a 7 day holiday not one) are closed on most other major jewish holidays.. even in districts where students are not jewish schools are closed on yom kippur, rosh hashannah and spring break revolves around passover, not easter.

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but many people dont see it as a religious holiday so thats why 'Non-religious' people will celebrate a holiday such as christmas because although to some it is a religious holiday to others it is not viewed as a religious holiday.

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Posted by iwannabmrsD

in agreeemnt tilde, Christmas day, although not the actual day is the day that is recognized by the Christian community, nothing abnormal about this, we don't celebrate presidents day on any presidents actual birthday, and MLK day isn't on the actualy day he was born either.. it's the recognition of the day that counts..

i don't really understand how come 'non religious' people celebrate a religious holiday.. u can say u'r not religious but u get togehter with family and blah blah blah but why do it on the 25th of december? why not do it on the 12th of march?

anyhoo.. most schools although not closed on hanukkah (which is most likely due to the fact that hanukkah is a 7 day holiday not one) are closed on most other major jewish holidays.. even in districts where students are not jewish schools are closed on yom kippur, rosh hashannah and spring break revolves around passover, not easter.

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Actually, schools not being closed has absolutely nothing to do with Chanukah being longer than one day. Chanukah is actually considered a pretty minor holiday as far as observance. You don't have to go to temple during chanukah therefore there is no need to close school to allow for children and/or teachers to observe since they don't have to. Schools are closed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because those are the High Holy days, the 2 holiest days of the jewish calendar that REQUIRE you go to temple (if you're observant of course). I would also venture to guess that in the tri-state area, even in predominantly non-jewish neighborhoods, you would still have a fair amount of teachers and administrators that may be required to attend services so therefore school is closed on those days to allow for this. Also, this isn't 'most' other jewish holidays, it's the only two that schools close for, though there are many others that exist without school closure.

Not sure about Passover and the spring break thing either though teachers would know better.....my only issue in questioning that would be that jewish holidays do not occur at the same time every year, the jewish calendar is lunar, not secular, therefore jewish holidays do not follow along with the school calendars.

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Posted by Espo22

Also some christians celebrate christmas on January 7th, this is mostly Russians who do so but people who follow the old christian orthodox calendar will celebrate on january 7th...i am christian orthodox but we celebrate dec 25th, i do know some who do it in january. This depends alot on the country itself because many russians do follow the old calendar

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Totally off topic, but Denise are you Russian?

missliss is right, that is what i said
chanukah is not a holiday where you are expected to be in temple all day

also, 'little xmas' is january 6th
that is when greek, russian ane eastern orthodox celebrate christmas

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Posted by Snowflake08

missliss is right, that is what i said
chanukah is not a holiday where you are expected to be in temple all day

also, 'little xmas' is january 6th
that is when greek, russian ane eastern orthodox celebrate christmas

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Laura I totally saw both your posts after I wrote. I should have read until the end first, my bad.

A lot of hispanic cultures celebrate Jan 6th as well.

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Posted by missliss

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Posted by Snowflake08

missliss is right, that is what i said
chanukah is not a holiday where you are expected to be in temple all day

also, 'little xmas' is january 6th
that is when greek, russian ane eastern orthodox celebrate christmas

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Laura I totally saw both your posts after I wrote. I should have read until the end first, my bad.

A lot of hispanic cultures celebrate Jan 6th as well.

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true but FH doesnt
his family celebrates the 24 and 25

im agnostic and i celebrate the holiday simply because it is everywhere you go you cant get away from christmas..plus i was raised an italian catholic so its jsut the tradition of christmas that i cant give up

but i dont do anything on easter..my family makes me participate but i really dont see a reason to

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Posted by failurebydsign

im agnostic and i celebrate the holiday simply because it is everywhere you go you cant get away from christmas..plus i was raised an italian catholic so its jsut the tradition of christmas that i cant give up

but i dont do anything on easter..my family makes me participate but i really dont see a reason to

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easter candy is a good reason!

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Posted by Espo22

Laura-i know what you're saying about stores being open on christmas around where you live but closed for jewish holidays. Where i live its a large jewish community, especially on austin street and theres been so many times I'll go to buy something there and then when i go ALLLLL the stores are closed because it's a jewish holiday so around me it revolves around the jewish holidays.

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true but that is mostly the little shops and boutiques
on austin there are also the major stores that are NOT closed for jewish holidays
ie: sephora, victorias secret, ny and co, starbucks, aldo, etc.

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Posted by Snowflake08

missliss is right, that is what i said
chanukah is not a holiday where you are expected to be in temple all day

also, 'little xmas' is january 6th
that is when greek, russian ane eastern orthodox celebrate christmas

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my family does little christmas too..its basically a secret santa..but its like the last little gift of the season and then the tree comes down on the 7th

I didn't get through all of the posts but I have a few comments:

1. I'm Jewish, and FH is not. When we first started dating his grandpa wished me a Merry Xmas and I said thank you, you too. Then his mom said 'ooh she doesn't celebrate Xmas!' and his grandpa started going on about how I might not celebrate it now but down the road I might decide to do so (thinking I was agnostic or athiest or just not religious... not that FH's family is religious at all). Neither really bothered me, but if anything the second thing bugged me a little more! (the assumption that you're either christian or nothing). I'm not bothered by people saying Merry Xmas to me, I can have a nice Xmas too even though I don't celebrate it.

2. I go to law school away from Long Island and it's totally different here. We still have classes on Yom Kippur which is *the* most religious Jewish holiday of the year. Some teachers will cancel class and the rest will tape their lectures but it's frustrating because it's still not easy to miss class. It's especially frustrating when my non-jewish friends have most of their classes cancelled but my teachers dont.

3. I don't go to temple regularly, although I did go to hebrew school and was Bat Mitzvah'd. I try to celebrate the holidays as best as I can, but to me it's a lot about cultural traditions as opposed to strict 'religion.'

4. It's funny how Chanukkah was blown up to be this big important holiday by the media (although it's rarely acknowledged and Christmas totally takes over the world) because Chanukkah isn't that important of a holiday. It just happens to fall around the same time as Christmas, calendar-wise. There are quite a few more important Jewish holidays.

5. What does annoy me is people who think that their religion is the only one that matters. I've encountered a few 'friends' who purposely say Merry Christmas to people who they know arent christian, and insist on referring to 'Christmas Break' as opposed to 'Winter Break' because they want to prove a point. They think that they shouldnt have to change their ways because other religions exist as long as they are the majority. They are opposed to anything season-neutral and do it to prove a point (or so they told me). I don't think most people are like that but it rubs me the wrong way.

I think Christmas has become more about the season and the spirit than the actual religious factor. After 17 years of Catholic school (from Kindergarten to college) I don't really agree with a lot of things the Catholic church says.

But I do believe in Jesus. History proves that Jesus existed. Whether he was God's son or not, no one can ever know for sure. But no one can say Jesus as a man never existed.

I don't even know if I believe all the stories in the Bible about Jesus' miracles. I think they were more metaphors than anything else. But I consider Jesus as a man inspirational- at the time he taught people to love everyone, regardless of their status or the sins they committed... which was unheard of for that time period. So as much as Christmas is about celebrating that God's son was born, I think it's ok to celebrate the birth of Jesus as a human being that simply changed the world.

WAITTTTTTTTT what did I miss, hahahahah. I celebrate xmas and Easter bec Im Christian.

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Posted by MPAS

WAITTTTTTTTT what did I miss, hahahahah. I celebrate xmas and Easter bec Im Christian.

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LOL yes, that is 'normal' LOL

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Posted by Snowflake08

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Posted by MPAS

WAITTTTTTTTT what did I miss, hahahahah. I celebrate xmas and Easter bec Im Christian.

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LOL yes, that is 'normal' LOL

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I know thats all I wanted to say not to start drama, hahahahaahahh

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Posted by missliss

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Posted by iwannabmrsD

in agreeemnt tilde, Christmas day, although not the actual day is the day that is recognized by the Christian community, nothing abnormal about this, we don't celebrate presidents day on any presidents actual birthday, and MLK day isn't on the actualy day he was born either.. it's the recognition of the day that counts..

i don't really understand how come 'non religious' people celebrate a religious holiday.. u can say u'r not religious but u get togehter with family and blah blah blah but why do it on the 25th of december? why not do it on the 12th of march?

anyhoo.. most schools although not closed on hanukkah (which is most likely due to the fact that hanukkah is a 7 day holiday not one) are closed on most other major jewish holidays.. even in districts where students are not jewish schools are closed on yom kippur, rosh hashannah and spring break revolves around passover, not easter.

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Actually, schools not being closed has absolutely nothing to do with Chanukah being longer than one day. Chanukah is actually considered a pretty minor holiday as far as observance. You don't have to go to temple during chanukah therefore there is no need to close school to allow for children and/or teachers to observe since they don't have to. Schools are closed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because those are the High Holy days, the 2 holiest days of the jewish calendar that REQUIRE you go to temple (if you're observant of course). I would also venture to guess that in the tri-state area, even in predominantly non-jewish neighborhoods, you would still have a fair amount of teachers and administrators that may be required to attend services so therefore school is closed on those days to allow for this. Also, this isn't 'most' other jewish holidays, it's the only two that schools close for, though there are many others that exist without school closure.

Not sure about Passover and the spring break thing either though teachers would know better.....my only issue in questioning that would be that jewish holidays do not occur at the same time every year, the jewish calendar is lunar, not secular, therefore jewish holidays do not follow along with the school calendars.

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actually school calendars follow jewish holidays(or christian holidays or holidays in general) .. spring break is never at the same time each year.. it mostly follows passover.. where passover and easter fall in sucession to each other u have one week off.. either passover week then easter sunday (and then return to work) or easter sunday and passover week (and then return to work) unless on a year like this upcoming one (2008) where easter and passover are several weeks apart, so u will have some districts (like mine WOO HOO) that will have easter break in march and then spring break in april (when passover comes along)