Tag: Interfaith Holidays

Battling/Loving Christmas

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Alright, it’s officially mid November now. Samhain has come and gone (and it turned out differently than I thought it would). Now we’re balls deep into the “Holiday Season”. Now, I know what you’re thinking: it’s not even thanksgiving yet, how can we be “balls deep”? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but all around us Christmas is basically punching us in the face with its cheer. Starbucks Christmas cups are already in circulation, some of the stores I frequent have had Christmas decorations out since OCTOBER (wtf, too soon), and I’ve already seen like 5 stories about the War on Christmas 2015. The holiday season is happening now people, we’re in it RIGHT NOW.

So, what’s a pagan/jewish-ish girl to do? How am I navigating what some might call a hostile takeover of the winter months by a fat man in a red pantsuit?

I’m eating it up, y’all. EATING. IT UP. Continue reading →

31 Days of Paganism– Day 20

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How do you navigate the Holiday Season and other holidays in an interfaith family?

Ooh, the dreaded Holiday Season. I think this one is hard for any person who has converted from Christianity to another religion or spiritual practice. Celebrating coc8Christmas is totally ingrained in my brain, it’s part of my cultural history and it HARD TO SHAKE. And when I first broke away from the church I really wanted to go cold turkey. I was ready to completely stop celebrating Christmas, and that meant no more sending Christmas cards, no Christmas carols, no tree decorating, nothing. It’s not that I didn’t like the holiday! It was really my own way of separating myself from Christianity. And what better way than to quit Christmas, the most celebrated christian holiday on the books (let’s be honest, Easter doesn’t really compare). I wanted to really commit myself to my new-found pagan religion and make Sabbats a priority over other holidays. It was really a way of saying, “I’m pagan! Not Christian!” I even wrote about it on my other blog, to really drive the point home.

It totally backfired.  Continue reading →

31 Days of Paganism– day 5

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Are there any secular activities that you incorporate into your religious practice?

I don’t know if there are any secular activities that I include in my religious practice. So here’s a Disney/Pokemon mashup to make up for such a short post:

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There are some pretty common interfaith practices that go on in our household (think Yule-Christmas-Hanukkah, Halloween-Samhain, etc.)

Actually, if we think about Halloween as a secular holiday, I would say that I do celebrate it just as much as I do Samhain. But I don’t necessarily consider giving candy to trick-or-treaters as a spiritual practice. But you just might see me dressed up as a wench as I bring a plate of food to our ancestral altar. Does that count?

Letting Go Feels Pretty Good.

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After putting Judaism on the back burner I felt an almost immediate sense of relief. Honestly, it’s hard spending most of your time defending your spiritual decisions, and although it was fulfilling I don’t think I was fully ready to take that on. So when I finally gave myself relief I had this burst of energy. I wrote a song, a chant, and wrote a poem for my prayer book! I’m not ready to share anything yet, because part of me is really self conscious about my creative works, but just getting it on paper is a big deal for me. I have a hard time dealing with the fact that I’m not perfect,so not getting it right the first time I put pen to paper, having to revise or do more than one draft infuriates me and prevents me from starting a lot of creative projects (including blog posts). That’s probably why I have so many half finished short stories in abandoned notebooks, and also why I have so much yarn and yet no handmade hats or scarves to my name at the moment (I knit and crochet). The truth is that I have a hard time enjoying the journey– I’m all about the destination. I want things to get done and I want them done right. and that can really interfere with my learning because I get tunnel vision on the destination and I don’t explore. And if I hit an obstacle I give up in frustration. Continue reading →