HezzeroftheWezzer t1_j1xa7kr wrote on December 28, 2022 at 2:06 AM

>They informed me that Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to celebrate anything (not birthdays, and certainly not Halloween) in order to not be seen as seeing themselves as higher than God.

This is not why. Any holidays or celebrations not celebrated are because of origins that are in direct conflict with Bible teachings.

>Candy was great and what's wrong with that?

No. There is nothing wrong with candy.

>They went on to say that Halloween is Satan's birthday, so it's very bad to celebrate it,

No. Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that Halloween is Satan's birthday. (How would anyone know such a thing? Puh-lease!) Halloween has its roots in the festival of Samhain which is a pagan religious celebration - in complete conflict with Bible-based teachings.

>I asked "Satan has a birthday? And he was a fallen angel, right? So do all the angels have birthdays?"

Yes, actually .... as you said. God talks about how his first-born of creation, Jesus, helped him create everything else thereafter ... including the millions (myriads upon myriads) mentioned in the Bible. So it stands to reason that they all must have had a "day of birth".

Regardless, it has nothing to do with why Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays or holidays. When a person looks into the origins of all of the secular holidays and sees how they have been adulterated by incorporating from other religions that were opposed and abhorred by God and Jesus, one does not feel bad or left out ... only relieved that they are not participating.

Origins matter. A delicious, shiny piece of candy loses its luster once you know that someone procured it from the gutter. Someone people would say "Oh, it still has its wrapper on it. It's safe to eat." And they do. I am not one of those people; I throw it away.

fairiefire OP t1_j1xihks wrote on December 28, 2022 at 3:11 AM

Thanks. I didn't say it was accurate - that is not my religion and I did not know the reason. But they were only 10.

[deleted] t1_j20cwpb wrote on December 28, 2022 at 7:11 PM

[removed]

944335 t1_j1xjxcf wrote on December 28, 2022 at 3:22 AM

Are you a JW?

HezzeroftheWezzer t1_j20069r wrote on December 28, 2022 at 5:47 PM

>Are you a JW?

Yes. However, I was raised by a Jehovah's Witness mother and Roman Catholic father.

Until I was a teenager, I had a foot in both worlds ... all the teachings from my Mom and birthdays, holidays, etc. with Dad and his family.

When I went to college, I walked away from everything on both sides. I wasn't following JW's, but I also wasn't celebrating holidays because I knew their true origins - and it was not in Christian or Bible teachings. It made no more sense to me than if I just started randomly observing Hanukkah or Kwanzaa.

In my mid-20s, after college and marriage, I started examining other religions, talking with various ministers, but in every case there were too many examples of their teachings in conflict with specific Bible principles and they could offer no explanation or reconciliation.

There was literally only one religion that followed the Bible completely, so I started studying the Bible again with them, as did my husband. We did for two years and were baptized. (My husband was previously Methodist and Baptist.)