Holiday Comparison: Hinduism and Christianity
Numerous religions celebrate holidays bringing family together in a devoted, loving environment. Hinduism celebrates many holidays reflecting their beliefs and rituals. Christianity is also a religion which commemorates certain days to praise the Lord and other holy saints. These special days are essential in a religious individual's life because it provides them with a day to rest and celebrate their God/deities. These festive days are what make people come together and practice their religion. Diwali is an important holiday celebrated by those of Hinduism, as Christmas is important to those of Christianity. Although Hinduism and Christianity have different aspects of their faith, Diwali and Christmas share key characteristics regarding to the celebration of the holidays.
Diwali and Christmas are both celebrated due to events that occurred in the history of Hinduism and Christianity. Diwali has been celebrated for years by the Hindu community. This ancient holiday is a memorable occasion honouring the return of Lord Rama after being exiled for fourteen years. The tale of Diwali begins with Rama and his wife Sita being banished to live in the forest accompanied by his brother Lakshmana. Due to the circumstances the demon King Ravana heard of Sita's beauty and kidnapped her, leaving Rama and his brother alone. The events that occurred upset Rama resulting in his attempt to battle Ravana and his army. Rama killed Ravana leading himself, Lakshmana, and Sita out of exile. On the journey home citizens of the Kingdom put out oil lamps in their windows escorting Rama and his family home. The history of Diwali is extremely relatable to the story of Christmas. The Christian holiday Christm...
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...ecause of my actions during Christmas, by putting up lights I can relate to the colourful display of lamps during the Diwali season. Although I am personally a Christian I believe this assignment has helped me in being better connected to Diwali as well as Christmas. By broadening my information on the background stories of both holidays I am now able to compensate the true meaning of Diwali and Christmas. The story of Diwali is relatable to Christmas, and so it helped me find the balance between both stories significance through God. I also have a better connection with the topic of Hinduism as I fully engulfed myself into one of their main holidays. Through preparation, lights, and background stories, both holidays are incredibly comparable. Diwali and Christmas demonstrate a similar structure overall, providing both holidays with relatable features.
The image enforces the meaning of Christmas being lost, and that the people need to be aware of this now sacrilegious, laic time. The source displays the change from sacred Australia, which was a time of religion, to a more secular period. The source presents the contemporary cultural values of Australians today, often disassociating themselves from holy, divine objects, places or people. Losing their sacred connectedness to God or their purpose with religion. Taking Christ out of the equation presents how Jesus has been neglected by those supposed Christians of the modern day, who have forgotten the sole meaning of Christmas and their religion. This image imposes a reinforced message through an image presenting secularism of contemporary Australian Christmas with the words “missing”, and “what Jesus has become”. The view of Source 3 displays that anything of great importance in the religious sense, including Jesus, in temporal culture which exists in Australia is lost.
Question 1: In what ways does Source 1 incorporate elements of spirituality and religion in the Murri people’s preparation for Christmas.
Christmas is a holiday celebrated by most of the world. Christianity is very popular in the US and Hispanic cultures. In the US, Christmas is celebrated with going to Church on Christmas Eve, spending time with their families, and many other things. People also reenact the nativity scene, sing Christmas carols, and do
... Religious Customs, History, Legends, and Symbols from around the World; Supplemented by a Bibliography and Lists of Christmas Web Sites and Associations. Detroit, Mich: Omnigraphics, 2003. Print.
Christmas was originally supposed to be a celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ. Modern historians suggest that Christ was actually born sometime in April, but that is hardly the point; the point is that a day on which to celebrate his birth and life was needed, and so one was chosen. During the season surrounding this holiday -- especially since it coincided with that of other, similar holidays -- it was thought right to honor Jesus by acting as he did, i.e., in a kind, generous, and forgiving manner. Out of this sprung the custom of giving gifts to loved ones on this holiday.
Thanksgiving and Hanukkah have many similarities and differences. Each symbolizes a unique part of each individual’s heritage that is celebrated so that it is not forgotten. There a mostly differences between two, but these are holidays that bring families together, giving support to one another and showing generous praise and love for if these holidays didn’t exist our days today would be quite different and drastically so. As we have learned about one another we see that our holidays are different but affect us all.
...carnation. After speaking to her about my religion ethnography, she offered that she practices Hinduism with her family and would be more than happy to open her home to me. I was honored that they gave me this opportunity, and understood that I truly was interested and not just writing a silly paper for a class. This information on Hinduism gave me more respect for my friend Adhita, as she plans to stay committed to Hinduism her entire life. I gained appreciation to the devotion, as well as the loyalty to good and bad karma. When first approaching the Sahai home, I felt slightly uncomfortable. Hoping the family wouldn’t judge my religion, and would be open about talking about theirs was my biggest concern. While this doesn’t even start to touch on the entire religion, I am confident I captured what was truly important about this religion to the Sahai family.
...as a very important day. Diwali; the word itself meaning “row of lights,” is another prominent Hindu holiday and occurs on what we know as New Year Eve—December 31st. It is a festival lights in which last for a five days. The lighting of candles signifies the welcoming of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Gambling is a norm on Diwali as it is seen as a way of assuring good luck for the upcoming year. The fourth day of Diwali is especially significant as it is the beginning of the lunar month of Karttika. On this particular day many celebrate religious customs to signify the New Year according to the Vikrama calendar (“Religion Facts,”n.p).
Different religions, different ways, and one aim of maintaining religious identity. Hinduism and Judaism, two of the world’s biggest religions, are seemingly completely unalike. With differences such as their views of afterlife, death and birth Hindus believing in rebirth and “oneness” with Brahman, and Jews believing in a world to come, focusing more on God’s image, never really mentioning what happens after death. Yet when you take a closer look into both religions you find some similarities. Both religions’ rituals focus on the same things, they may be celebrated differently but the meaning behind the celebrations and the meaning behind some of their symbols are the same, and their purposes help people maintain their identity and keep the traditions of their cultures strong.
Today it seems as though Christmas has fallen victim to materialism and commercialization. Rather than it being a time of loving and giving, it has become a stressful season of greed. Amidst all the hustle and bustle, it is important for us to recognize the true reason of the season, and celebrate in a fashion that exemplifies that reason.
Although it was never celebrated in biblical times, Christmas is celebrated in local churches here in Visalia, California in praise of the fact that God loved us so much; he sent his one and only son to earth. He was wholey god and wholey man. Whereas we have succumbed to the temptations of this earth, Jesus was able to overcome all temptations and live a sinless life. He was then crucified as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. One cannot understand why we celebrate the birth of Christ without seeing the other end of his life. He was crucified for our sins and resurrected.
Diwali, the festival of lights, is one of the important and widely spread holidays celebrated in India. It is a celebration of lights, and for many, it is truly a sensory experience; some families decorate their houses with all sorts of lights and open up to the neighbors, sharing their love and their food.
Ah, to be a kid again. How wonderful it would be to relive the magic of Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I have always been a kid at heart and a true lover of Christmas. But as we get older and we realize that Santa Claus and the North Pole were just stories our parents told us so we’d behave, Christmas starts to lose that magical feeling. No matter how much we might still love it, Christmastime just isn’t the same as when we were young. And at a time of all the aggravating shopping hustle and bustle, dents in the pockets, headaches, traffic jams and long lines, I begin to realize that God has sent me the most magical Christmas gift of all, a beautiful three year old whom I can relive Christmas in all over. Through my child’s eyes, I see myself each time his face lights up at the sight of Santa, and I feel his anticipation each morning as he faithfully opens up one more window on the Christmas calendar. Tonight, as we decorate the tree, I admiringly watched his tiny fingers delicately place each of the ornaments on all the same branches until they drooped to the floor. So proud of his work, I secretly placed some elsewhere, as to not hurt his feelings, and wondered how many times my own mother had done the same thing. And after a long day of shopping and excitement, I watched his eyelids begin to droop while lying underneath the warm glow of the Christmas tree lights.
I bet if you were to ask anyone from any culture what Christmas was, they would know automatically that it is a Christian holiday. And because of this I think that I should know what Hanukkah is, or who the Buddha was and what he represented.
Many holidays are celebrated around the world, and all of them follow a different set of ideologies. Some ideologies may be religious, political,