Comments on: A Buddhist Christmas

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:05:00 +0000

@Catherine – Guy Fawkes was actually a Catholic and the plot was targeting the Protestant King James I. I’m not sure why you dont celebrate it in Northern Ireland but it is celebrated in the rest of the UK and some parts of the Commonwealth (maybe due to ‘religious’ tensions).

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:37:24 +0000

Guy Fawkes is actually protestant. Thats why we don’t celebrate it in Northern Ireland because it’s mostly protestant folks and they don’t like the whole ‘burning of a fellow protestant’ and not being able to blow up the catholic queen. So for the ‘drunk irishman’ thing, he probably gave money because he’s grateful that the queen wasn’t blown up and Guy Fawkes got burnt as a result. >:|

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:13:09 +0000

I “celebrate” [to a degree] all things conducive to happiness, contentment, love and that are helpful in bringing about spiritual awakening and understanding; giving, sharing, compassion, oneness of mankind… Christmas, from the traditional Christian celebration of Christ and His love, to the less religious celebrations of sharing, caring, family and community complete with “On earth peace, good will to men” is, for this Buddhist, well worth celebrating.

By: Robin

Robin — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:31:59 +0000

I know this will probably get me into trouble but I see Christmas as a cultural event and not a religious celebration. As a long time Buddhist I see it as a time for family, peace, and giving.

My family has been helping serve Christmas dinners at the Salvation Army to the poor and homeless for the last couple of years. Always a great time.
Last year I met a lady and her daughter, both also volunteering to serve Christmas dinners. They were both Muslim, originally from Iran. This was one of several soup kitchens they had been helping. It thrilled me to see this lady helping poor and homeless people celebrate Christmas, a day that she didn’t even believe in. To me that’s the “Christmas spirit”

By: Brian Schell

Brian Schell — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:16:01 +0000

From Jesse:

Gambatte,

I am not sure why I wrote ‚ÄòBomb fire‚Äô-but I was meditating before writing the post. I wonder, on a subconscious level, if the ‚Äòwar on terror‚Äô is getting to me?

Maybe I becoming ‚Äòdyslexic‚Äô since using Dailybuddhism. God knows best-ooops!-Buddha and myself knows‚Ä¶(SMILE)

Anyhow, the French ‚Äòbon‚Äô(good) perhaps should declare how the ‚ÄòYorkshirman‚Äô and Catholic‚Äôs life was celebrated in England.

By: David

David — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:53:27 +0000

I enjoy christmas as both a fun time with friends and family and also a time when lots of people demonstrate outward compassion for others. I tend to think of christmas as a pagan festival which has been adopted by the christian church. Here in England it was pagan first after all. I think every traddition has its own “winter festival” – hannukah, eade, christmas, diwali etc. I do try to observe the main buddhist festivals of Sangha day, Buddha day and Dhamma day.

whatever you celebrate, have a good one :0)

By: Gambatte

Gambatte — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 11:35:21 +0000

Actually, ‘Bonfire’ night.
In some areas of Yorkshire, where I’m from, its actually celebrated as the first time someone entered Parliament with honest intentions! (Fawkes was a Yorkshireman)
Seriously, its an event which has all but lost any of its original significance. Its a reason to gather outside, watch fireworks whilst eating ‘Bonfire toffee’ and hotdogs

By: Jesse

Jesse — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:55:20 +0000

Serena, I accept that as a sensible option. Not all events should be celebrated. In England, my home country, we have ‘Bomb Fire Night’.

It is riddled with anti-Catholic prejudice and we take a figure of Guy Fawkes ( a Catholic Martyr who tried to blow up Parlement)and throw him on top of the Fire and ‘cheer’.

As a kid I loved it, even made a few pound by dressing up as ‘Guy’outside pubs, where the odd drunk Irishman would,perhaps with a bit of Catholic compassion, throw the little Guy a shiling or two. In Spain, much of their Catholic festivals celebrate the end of the ‘Moors’ (ie., Muslims).

By: Serena

Serena — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:47:59 +0000

Hi!
I was born and raised Catholic, but now consider myself Buddhist (for only the past year or so).

I do celebrate Christmas, but not in the Christian sense, I suppose. I view Jesus as a great spiritual leader, or perhaps bodhisattva.

More than anything, I view it as a time to get together with friends and family and enjoy eachothers company.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:05:39 +0000

There are few relgious traditions that do not celebrate.

Even secularism has its holidays (May Day, Luther King, etc)and even in Saudi Arabia there is eid al Adhar, which Muslims the world over are celebrating, including the serious and iconoclastic.

I read that Cromwell, like a proto-Taliban advocate, abolished ‘Christmas’, seeing it as a Catholic heresy. Sufis celebrate the ‘prophet’s’ birthday, dogmatic Muslims do not.

In respect of Buddhist countries (and they perhaps have more celebrations than in the West) the question is: are there the same kind of polemics among them as there was and is in the Montheistic tradition regarding specific ‘events’ and ‘days’?

If there is, then the nice practical advice about Christmas, may need to be approached cautiously.

By: Brian Schell

Brian Schell — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:49:42 +0000

Yes, December 8th is “Bodhi Day” the anniversary of Buddha’s Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. I was going to mention it, but it didn’t really seem close enough date-wise to mention it here. Thanks for bringin it up though.

By: Robb Caudle

Robb Caudle — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:38:00 +0000

Hi we celebrate a Buddhist holiday in Dec, we celebrate on 08Dec Buddha`s enlightenment day. The day before 07Dec we had a Goma fire celebration where we wrote down all the problems between us being enlightened and burnt them in a fire.

Regards,

robert.