As many people know, Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, or any national holiday (Independence Day, Thanksgiving), and they don’t celebrate birthdays.
Jehovah’s Witnesses can celebrate wedding anniversaries, they are allowed wedding showers and baby showers, and may have a well-managed reception after a wedding. In the past few years I’ve noticed that they have graduation parties for the kids, but this was unheard of when I was growing up as a JW. I personally have never celebrated a Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, or a birthday of any sort.
The reasoning for this on the part of Jehovah’s Witnesses is that many holidays have pagan and unchristian origins. You can do a little research yourself and see that Christmas and Easter are both mixtures of paganism and some Christian beliefs; even secular historians will say that Jesus was probably not born on December 25. Jehovah’s Witnesses also reason that Jesus did not tell them to celebrate his birthday but to remember his death.
This post is not meant to argue with their beliefs or reasons for why they don’t celebrate these holidays, as I would never do that with any religion. I would never tell a Jewish person that their kids are missing out because they don’t celebrate Christmas or tell a Christian parent that they should observe Hanukkah. I respect each religion for what they do and do not observe, and understand why Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate many of these holidays.
