Can Christians Celebrate the Indian Festival: Diwali?
“.....above all it is a celebration of the victory of life, light and lightheartedness over nefarious ‘Narkasuran’ forces.”
Why not? Christians love Curry, Alu Gobi, chipatis and nan as well as any.
Pass the Darjeeling tea.
I just moved to a new neighborhood, I noticed a bunch of “Christmas” lights on the houses already.
I then realized, these were all Indian families who put them out for Diwali.
No. Next question, please.
If an Indian friend invited me to a celebration I would go but I wouldn’t celebrate it as a religious occasion.
I won’t condemn it that’s for sure because it’s a FAR FAR CRY from Islam.
Heart’s in the right place.
But Christ isn’t in the Right Place in the celebration.
Still, I think it would be an enjoyable occasion.
I’ve had Jewish and Protestant gals over to Good Friday fish dinner in my lifetime.
I’ve been to Jewish Friends’ holiday occasions.
There’s a time to try to convert people and there’s a time to just enjoy their special days with them.
Islam and some others being the MAJOR exceptions.
They can celebrate it, along with celebrating “Talk Like A Pirate Day”. The question is, though, why should they?
Notice Islam is always absent from anything non Islamic.
It’s not unprecedented, but your really need the guidance of the Holy Spirit or I can see it going bad in so many ways.
Paul used the Greek “Unknown God” as a starting point to tell the people of Athens about the One True God.
I understand , the Catholic church when denied celebrations at any other time of the year other than the Winter Solstice, a pagan festival, decided to celebrate birth of Jesus, Christmas. The end result is that it wiped out the pagan festival. No one remembers the pagan festival except a few cult groups that try to detract from mainstream Christianity.
Something similar happened with pagan Easter, though I think that one was an intentional move to set the Christian celebration of the resurrection against the pagan holiday and not driven by government regulation.
If you’re not careful and spirit led, you risk having other gods before Him. And distorting the gospel into something else.
Dangerous stuff.
Mormonic source - knows nothing of Christianity
What is the festival that celebrates the victory of something over Islam ? I want to celebrate that.
Food sacrificed to idols.
If someone invites me to celebrate Krishna’s victory, I say no, for the sake of the other’s conscience.
If someone invites me for curry and masala, I say yes, for curry and masala neither redeems nor condemns.
It’s a case-by-case call, which is why we have the Holy Spirit to guide us.
I had a staff of about 10 Israelis working for me. In December they were talking about their Christmas plans. So, I asked about it. One jokingly said, “Hey, we celebrate anything that involves gifts and food.” Seriously, the Israeli management went out of their way, giving Christmas gifts to all the employees, regardless of religion. We had a few Buddhists who graciously said “thank you.”
You can respect the other guy’s right to his beliefs, and enjoy his celebration.
Which “Christians”?
Might be able to get a good deal on magic underwear for certain “christians”. Or maybe miraculously find the golden tablets from upstate NY back when, and as yet un-revealed to the rest of the “unworthy” non-gods.
I’d rather celebrate DiBeaver.
If you’re a Christian, why would you? If you ask the pope, why wouldn’t you.
Why would we?! Send them home to India with all their tribal religions and such. Good riddance.
Big juicy 100% beef steak?
1 Cor 8 in its entirety is exactly this question.