Establishing Tradition
Have you seen Fiddler on the Roof? It’s one of the few musicals I tolerate; watching it harkens me back to the days of my childhood watching Turner Classic Movies on the living room floor while my mom and grandmother sewed. One of the opening numbers is titled, ‘TRADITION’. Tevye explains the roles and practices of his village, Anatevka. It’s iconic.
Tradition is the familiar practice of daily routines, religious practices, and observed holidays in each family unit. How do you establish tradition when the “Christian” holidays you have been taught to practice are rooted in pagan rituals?
I love Jesus. I love my faith. I don’t like the overlap of Santa alongside the birth of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus with pagan practices.
So what is the middle ground? I don’t overlap them!
My family is so festive that breaking off from everything I was raised in would cause a major rift in our family dynamic so we still participate in pagan rooted traditions: Halloween, Easter egg hunts, visits with Santa. All of those things have pagan roots but I haven’t eliminated them from tradition.
Halloween we have a family costume (no kids, this isn’t a group decision. I’m the mom.)
Christmas we’ll participate in festive traditions such as cookies, caroling, MOVIES (let’s be honest there’s nothing better than Christmas movies and hot chocolate at your grandparent’s house). Santa is a character and I’ll teach my kids that. He’s in the same category as Mickey Mouse, Daniel Tiger, and Big Bird. They’ll learn about his fictional character but my kids will learn that their gifts under the tree are from their family.
Easter bunnies and egg dying will remain part of our spring traditions for the next little while until they grow out of it.
Here’s the deal - I could not participate in these things. I could say no but it’s not in my heart to say no. What is in my heart to do is to teach my kids about Jesus without the overlap of these festive pagan holidays. There’s a lot of confusing text about when Jesus’ birth occurred so I’m not going to teach my kids that Jesus’ birthday is on Christmas because His birth has nothing to do with the presents under the tree.
Easter is the same way. Jesus has nothing to do with a bunny or eggs. I’ll teach my kids about His crucifixion and resurrection during Passover, the holiday Jesus participated in with His own friends.
I get why we try to assimilate Christian holidays with pagan rituals - dang it they’re fun. But I don’t want to confuse my kids the way I was confused - the solution: do both but not at the same time. It’s ok to say we celebrate Christmas as a tradition just because it’s a seasonal tradition. It’s ok to say we do Easter egg hunts and bunnies just because it’s a springtime tradition. I’m not ok with telling my kids it’s about Jesus - because it isn’t. There are some things we do to establish an identity that isn’t holy in nature but they are still sacred.
Sacred because Yahweh blesses the family. In Genesis, we read the account of creation. The 7th day was for rest. The 7th day was to fellowship with our Creator and one another. The fact of the matter is: our traditions exist because ultimately our family time is sacred. How we worship Yahweh and Yeshua, how we spend time with our families - those things are up to us. What matters, in the end, is not how we do it but that we do invest in creating a tradition for our family.