Pagan Festival$

My View on Pagan Traditions

I used to love holiday parties and traditional festivals, especially when family was involved. Everyone would come together, happy to see each other, with no issues, fights, or arguments. Watching family members arrive, often bringing food to share, was a joy. The host would greet them, take their dishes, and place them in a designated area for everyone to enjoy. Sometimes, they’d bring their signature dishes—ones they’d skillfully mastered and received many compliments for. Those were always the best!

Games

I also loved the digital and board games we played together. I still enjoy dominoes and card games. We’d sit around the table—outside or in the living room—as a large family, playing, talking, and laughing.

At that age, I didn’t fully understand the meaning of love or family values. I saw the love depicted in books and on TV during these gatherings, but I didn’t grasp what love truly was. I must admit, my views on love were subjective, though I embraced them as if they were objective.

When I began reading the Scriptures, I struggled to understand much of it because my view of love differed from what the Scriptures taught. I hadn’t grown up learning love from the Scriptures but from people, mostly influenced by the world. Trying to understand true love was, at first, quite challenging. I aligned with only a small portion of it; much of it was new and often contrary to worldly perspectives.

One teaching in particular, about the two sons, stood out. The father asked one son to work in the field, and he said no. The other said yes but didn’t do it. Surprisingly, the son who said no ended up doing the work. It took me a while to grasp this, even after reading it repeatedly.

Looking back, many of my decisions—not driven by temptation but by a lack of understanding—led me into trouble.

I’m not perfect, yet!

I’m not perfect, nor do I claim to have achieved perfection. However, I don’t deny Elohim’s command to strive for scriptural perfection, as many Christians do, though I don’t consider myself one. Just because I haven’t reached it doesn’t mean Yeshua abolished it. It’s a process of ups and downs, highs and lows. We fall, but we get back up. Sometimes we look back; other times, we move forward steadily. At times, we feel blind; other times, we see clearly. The key is to never give up. Keep going! It’s not the falling that defines a person, but the getting up.

The more I read the Scriptures, the clearer I saw my past actions—many of which were manipulative, vengeful, ignorant, and foolish.

How Do I See Traditional Holidays Now?

I now view them as manipulative. Merchants love holidays; they’re profitable for them and the economy. That’s why new traditions, like gender reveal parties, keep emerging. This trend began around 2004–2008, with a notable example in 2008 when blogger Jenna Karvunidis announced her baby’s sex via a cake on her ChicagoNow blog, High Gloss and Sauce. The trend gained traction around 2011, fueled by social media platforms like YouTube, where videos from 2008 and 2009 started appearing, and grew through the 2010s.

Since then, gender reveals have caused injuries, accidents, deaths, wildfires, and significant financial waste. Businesses profit as usual. People copy one another, falling deeper into debt, turning simple celebrations into burdensome, unnecessary spectacles.

I now see the love in pagan holidays not as rooted in family but in the worship of worldly festivals and parties. I’m not saying our family doesn’t love each other in some way. Rather, we gathered because of a traditional pagan holiday, not because we genuinely missed each other (despite that being the stated reason). To me, it wasn’t authentic. It wasn’t about setting aside time for family but about celebrating a specific date alongside the world.

Test yourselves

Try declining gifts on Father’s Day or, if you’re a woman, Mother’s Day, and see how many genuine gifts you receive that year. You’ll be surprised. How many gifts do you get on a random day? Even if someone wants to give you a gift, they often wait for a holiday. So, what’s the priority—the gift or the day? Surely, no one wants to show up empty-handed on Mother’s Day; that would seem ungrateful or embarrassing, regardless of how you treat your parents. If you don’t give your mother a gift on Mother’s Day, the world judges you, and their pagan worship of that day begins. Many of Yeshua’s true followers know that gifts given on pagan holidays like Mother’s Day often stem from fear of criticism, not genuine intent. In the Scriptures, every day is Mother’s and Father’s Day! The world has been deceived into believing that buying a gift on a pagan holiday expresses love. Hook, line, and sinker.

Imagine your elderly parents starving, with only a week to live. You want to buy them groceries but wait until the next pagan holiday to give it to them. Is that love, or has the pagan tradition taken priority?

The Scriptures teach us not to be angry at a brother (including everyone, not just blood relatives) without cause. How many of us have gotten upset because someone didn’t bring gifts, help set up for a pagan party, bring food, or show up? Did Elohim command these pagan holidays? No. If it’s not a command from Elohim, why are we angry at our brothers—family, friends, or neighbors—for not participating in a man-made holiday? If they don’t want to buy a gift, help set up, attend, or cook, what law of Elohim have they broken?

None.

Many of these parties are not genuine. They don’t reflect pure, uncorrupted love. People hold animosity and criticize those who don’t participate in these pagan traditions. Some judge others based on their clothing or words—utter foolishness.

Many attend these parties to boast about their achievements or wealth. Others aim to showcase superior knowledge, whether accurate or not. Some use these days to display their form of godliness according to their religion or invented traditions.

This is why I despise holiday get-togethers. Everyone arrives with their own agenda, masked by smiles and hugs. Many gossip behind each other’s backs. Is it wrong to point out the obvious? Is it wrong to say the sky is blue when it is, in fact, blue?

The Scriptures don’t teach us to filter our speech excessively but to cleanse our hearts. Where am I to tell anyone? I have my own issues, which I don’t fully understand, but I’m not afraid to admit it. There should be no fear in doing so. In modern religion, people don’t admit their flaws; they act perfect while claiming otherwise, a form of false humility.

Some say, “I have no filter.” I hear that often, and I don’t reject it. I smile and reflect on it. I welcome constructive criticism and embrace its value, something many haven’t learned. They live in a fantasy about how the world perceives them, when it could be the opposite.

For the world’s merchants, holidays are a sacred time to be with family—or so they claim. In reality, it’s about ensuring a constant flow of money, and people have fallen for it. Haven’t you wondered why the news, city mayors, governors, or presidents declare new holidays? It’s to boost the economy at the city, state, or federal level. People rarely think about it; they just feel tired of another holiday without understanding the manipulation.

Modern religion views God’s festivals as burdensome. When someone teaches that some of these festivals are still active and we should participate, people get annoyed. They don’t realize their annoyance stems from having embraced so many pagan holidays that they can’t fit Elohim’s festivals into their schedules. It’s not that His festivals are burdensome; it’s that they’re overwhelmed by pagan celebrations.

Birthday’s

Birthday parties are another annoyance. Haven’t you seen the scheme? The birthday person buys a cake, decorations, and sends invitations to celebrate. But through man-made traditions, arriving without a gift is frowned upon. So, you buy a gift, and so does everyone else. It’s nothing but an exchange: I give you a piece of cake, ice cream, and chips; you bring me gifts—a barter system, not love.

If that weren’t enough, while eating a $0.99 piece of cake you traded for a $20–$30 gift, someone hands you another invitation to their birthday party. Hook, line, and sinker, again. Once you attend one, you’re roped into another, and another. Everywhere you go, more invitations pile up. No wonder people can’t afford a simple life—these holidays and traditions drain their bank accounts, and they rarely notice. They attend to feel important, to be the life of the party, not to be criticized, to receive compliments, not constructive criticism, which they avoid. Yet, the Scriptures teach the great benefits of embracing constructive criticism.

Marriage

Take marriage as another example. When someone mentions getting married, the first response is often, “You need to save money!” Why? Is the traditional feast more important than Elohim’s laws? Some would rather stay in a sinful relationship if they can’t afford a $90,000 wedding than go to the courthouse, sign papers, and get married for a few bucks. Some people are that superficial, and those are the ones to avoid. Be kind, don’t gossip, but stay away from them, and you’ll see how peaceful your life becomes.

The same applies to family members who gossip or constantly boast. They create discord. Be kind, help them when needed, but keep your distance. Don’t gossip or boast, as you don’t want to become like them. This doesn’t mean you don’t love them, especially if you’re following the Scriptures’ examples.

When I look at holidays and how people celebrate them, it’s clear they’ve been groomed to honor meaningless days invented by merchants worldwide to profit. We are the sheep. We gather in places they built for us and eat the foods they decide we eat.

Now, I have no issue with getting together just because. In fact, I love those gatherings. They hold no worldly significance. When someone says, “Let’s hang out,” those are the ones I truly enjoy—where people can enjoy each other’s company without enriching merchants or posting on social media to seem important to thousands of “friends” they’ve never met. That’s why I’m not active on social media. I have an anonymous account on X (formerly Twitter) to read raw, unfiltered news. If people want to know about me, they can call or visit me. If you don’t have my number or know where I live, you clearly don’t know me.

How do we survive in this complicated world?

Simple: keep your mouth shut, don’t talk about worldly people, say kind things, or say nothing at all. They’ll keep talking about you—that won’t stop—but don’t imitate them. Reserve constructive criticism for those truly following Elohim; they’ll embrace it, knowing its value as taught in the Scriptures.

Family is a complex matter.

We’re all at different levels of understanding, and people act according to what they seem to understand. Some pride themselves on money, some on how much they work, some on how others view them, their clothes, cars, or professions. Yet, these are temporary and not true measures of success. Many live miserable lives, wishing for death. Sad, but true. They’ve drifted from seeking true understanding of happiness, surrounding themselves with people who make them miserable, expecting them to conform to their unhappy ways. This may sound negative to the world, but it’s true. Only by embracing truth and acknowledging our shortcomings can we change our path.

True success isn’t in money, people, fame, work, or friends. It’s in knowing and walking in Elohim’s paths. Through Him, we receive eternal life. Without Him, your only happiness is temporary, and your future will be torment. Look how quickly lives change—one day, everything’s perfect; the next, it’s a disaster. That’s how fragile their foundation is.

When you criticize someone, ask yourself: Are you judging them by your traditions, the world’s traditions, or Elohim’s laws? What law of Elohim have they broken?

Think about it. I share this because I love you.

Shalom.