#religion & holidays

[damiduck]

Damian, handing Bruce a piece of paper with a very neat calendar on it: father, I will be taking a step back from my participation in our nightly patrols. I have carefully considered factors such as, but not limited to, school tests, most likely days for breakouts and when other people will be available. Here is my schedule.

Bruce: any particular reason you are stepping back from Robin?

Damian: I have reached an acceptable age and am by far mature enough, so I will be participating in Ramadan this year, father. Afterwards I will pick my duties up as normal, but with changed sleeping and eating patterns, this is the most logical step for now.

Bruce, who grew up with a jewish mother and christian father who were intent to raise him on some weird mix of the two, then a second father who was atheist, proceeded to lose his entire way in any form of religion due to losing himself in his teen years, took in Jewish boy, then a catholic one with religious trauma, then an atheist one who had no idea how to even approach the idea of religion, followed up by a pagan girl and already making seven different mental lists of things he will need to research, how to add aspects of Islam into their weird family holidays and trying desperately to show his support for his son: ....hnn

Damian: thank you father

[gieoki]

tumblr gets uncropped version. have my dess interpretation

[chroniclesofajewishteen]

If Jews have to celebrate Christmas because "everyone does it" and "it's not even religious" or "it's just so commercialized to the point it's for everyone" then you need to celebrate Channukah. You need to sing all the prayers because "It's festive!" You need to light the menorah every night and buy it with your own money. You need to join a Channukah party with all your co-workers and friends because "It's really a holiday about family and getting together" and you need to explain 50 times why you're here if you're Christian. And at the party, we're all going to share the story of Channukah, and when you don't know it, we'll say "oh, but everyone knows it! Everyone celebrates Channukah!" Oh, does that sound a bit weird and frustrating? It's almost like stuff like this has been happening to Jewish people every year and you don't care.

[blueskittlesart]

“did you really not know about the tower of babel” well i knew that it was a tower. that either existed or didn’t exist. (???? still unclear. also still don’t know what it was for) either way how the fuck was i supposed to make that connection with no context other than “spaceship stronger than jesus”

[shiftythrifting]

Easter edition!

It sadly did not have all the pieces

Arc Aurora CO

[psalms-and-spells]

Can we stop pretending that Christian Holidays were all ‘stolen’ from Pagans and start realizing that Christianity actually had a good chunk of their history where pagans willingly converted and brought their culture into it. (With the larger church accepting these cultural differences btw)

Or even with Christian traditions that were started by colonized pagan groups it often wasn’t ‘theft’ but instead people mixing these religions and creating traditions and holidays they found comfort in.

Sincerely,

Someone who is tired of explaining that Christianity and Paganism aren’t like… spiritual mortal enemies.

[slyandthefamilybook]

The debate around Christmas is so weird.

On one side you have atheists saying Christmas is a secular holiday and everyone should celebrate it

On another side you have Christians saying Christmas been too secularized and it needs to be made Christian again

On another side you have antitheists saying Christmas is a Christian holiday and no one should celebrate it because no one should be Christian

On another side you have Christian Evangelicals saying Christmas is a Christian holiday and everyone should celebrate it because everyone should be Christian

And then you have me, a Jew, stuck in the middle like "I don't want any of this"

[enbysiriusblack]

Sirius was in the middle of taping a dung bomb underneath a desk in Flitwick's empty classroom when Peter spoke.

"You going home for the holidays?"

Sirius easily slid out from under the desk, folding his arms on the top as he glanced over to Peter, "Nah. I'll probably go to James' instead. See how long it takes them to come drag me back themselves instead of sending that wretched Kreature."

Peter nodded, "I might come join you, Mum's place is always packed during winter."

Sirius grinned, "Brilliant", he climbed over the table and jumped off it, "We can spend Yule together."

Peter smiled back, "Yeah. The Potter's made you your own guest room right?"

"Oh, I forgot you haven't seen it! It's much cooler than my room at Grimmauld Place."

"Oh, no naked women?"

Sirius laughed, "Absolutely not. Maybe I want my mother to have a fit, but definitely not Mia. But Monty got me these proper band posters and there's this huge Queen one over my bed, and last summer when I flooed to the Potter's, me and James stole this traffic cone so that's in there. Oh, and Mia met me in Camden as well and she got me all these muggle clothes and Marlene built me a cupboard to put it all in."

"It sounds nice, can't wait to see it."

Sirius grabbed Peter's hand to drag him to the next classroom, "Merlin, neither can I. And you can borrow any of it, of course. I actually got a guitar for when you come over."

"You got a guitar? What kind?"

Sirius shrugged, "Fender Strat, I think. You'll play it right? I love hearing you play."

Peter beamed, "Course, I will."

Sirius tousled Peter's hair before glancing at his bag of dung bombs, "Only got a few left", he sighed.

Peter held his hand out, "Pass them here, I was thinking if we put them on the doors instead and leave them open then the smell would reach to a further distance."

Sirius instantly perked up, grabbing Peter's face and quickly giving him a kiss before turning to the windows, "Make sure all the windows are shut as well!"

Peter, cheeks still bright red, walked over to shut the remaining open windows.

[euryynome]

📍Duomo di Napoli 🇮🇹

[lokavisi]

As we approach Yule and the winter holidays, we see a LOT of false narratives around the origins of the ways in which they're celebrated. And not in the ways you think. This blog lays out sources intelligently and logically to illustrate the facts of our human history, not false sentiments of anti-Christianity/Pagan superiority.

I particularly appreciated this quote in their conclusion: "[I]t’s easy enough to show that the claims are wrong and then in turn that makes it look like Pagans and NeoPagans trade in propaganda, conspiracy theories, and uneducated claims - it makes all of us look bad. But to me, more importantly, when someone is starting out and wants to learn, misinformation builds walls, hurdles, and snares that they won’t know how to navigate at the start of their journey."

So before we go around teaching ourselves and others false information upon which to build our practices and worldviews, let's take the time to educate ourselves, yeah? I admit I have yet to get through *every* source listed in this blog as there are many (I am working on it, though!). I just believe this is vital information and have no desire to wait to share it.

Knowing what we celebrate, how we do it, and the why of it all is important, no matter the origins. Embracing our history and our modern practices need not be mutually exclusive. I hope this information strengthens and blesses your winter practices and celebrations this year. 🌟

[lord-here-i-am]

Happy All Saints Day

[wis-art]

Hoppas ni får en glad påsk!

[seraphic-sapphic-safehaven]

🌙 Ramadan Mubarak to all queer Muslims out there!! ⭐️

[writingwithcolor]

Jews (and Muslims) in space! AKA fun with halakhic hypotheticals

@whiteraven13 asked:

Hi, I'm writing a sci-fi book that involves a long spaceflight before arriving on a new planet. How would being in space affect things like Shabbat (since no sundown) and praying towards Mecca? I want people's faiths to be important in the book because it always drives me up the wall when sci-fi stories are like "In the future people will be enlightened and won't need religion any more." Thank you!

Oh boy are you in luck, because this is actually something we talk about all the time! An astronaut in our current world doesn’t have the option of taking a full 25 hours off work, but they have in fact marked the beginning of shabbat by lighting electronic shabbat candles. Jewish astronauts have generally observed the shabbat times of their point of takeoff; lighting shabbat candles in orbit therefore has a set precedent. 

We don’t yet have a precedent for which direction to face while praying; Judaism and Islam treat this issue differently, since in Islam they face toward the actual direction of Mecca, while in Judaism we face due east even in places where Jerusalem is to the West or North of us. My instinct says that on another planet we would face toward planetary East, but on a long spaceflight my thought is that we would likely not worry about what direction the Jewish prayer space faces, since we also have the convention of facing toward whichever wall the torah scrolls are stored on, regardless of which direction it is. Speaking of which, there has been a torah scroll in space, on more than one occasion. 

Judaism has a lot to say about time. We don’t only mark the beginning and end of Shabbat at certain times, we also pray three times a day, at set times, and we observe holidays linked to the seasons--the seasons as they are in Jerusalem, regardless of which hemisphere of the Earth we’re standing on. It might be a jar for characters who have been observing the shabbat times of Houston for years to finally set down on a planet where their sense of time might be completely different--and narrative-wise, that’s not a bad thing: an American Jew stepping off a plane in Australia might have a similar experience.

The question of whether pork products created by a Star Trek style replicator would be kosher is open for constant debate: my gut says that when it came down to it there would be some people who do and some people who don’t accept the kosher status of a replicated pork chop, just as there is now for Impossible or Beyond fake-meat cheeseburgers. 

Thank you for your discomfort with the trope of an enlightened future where the traditions of our ancestors have been eradicated, and for wanting to paint a picture of a better future, one where we are valued and given the resources and freedom to preserve and develop our living cultures. 

- Meir

I agree with Meir - the good news is these are very realistic dilemmas and you will find lots of relevant commentary online; the bad news is, you will find a lot more questions than answers! But that’s also good news, because you can pick and choose the decisions and outcomes that suit your story. The line of reasoning will matter more than the conclusion.

Not much to add except I answered a slightly similar question with some pointers on things to google and why:

Jewish Character Stuck in Time Loop

Thanks for including our religion and culture in a highly technological future world 😊

- Shoshi

[randyite]

The Never-ending "War on Christmas"

[shiftythrifting]

A Very Specific Book, an angel that's here to kick your ass, a Snow Guy(?), Holy Egg

Savers - Danvers, MA