Religious Holidays
The church I used to attend has a sign out in front that reads “Easter, it’s not just about the eggs.” This is true, but its funny that right beside it, there is another poster advertising the church’s “Easter Eggstravaganza.” It seems a little bit hypocritical if you ask me.
Religious holidays (specifically in this post Christmas and Easter) always annoy me, mostly because Christian family always try to get me to go to the church services for them. I don’t know about churches elsewhere, but it seems to be that the lamest services of the year are around Christmas and Easter. They’re always the same, lack any innovation, and all about capitalizing on the larger than usual crowds that attend around the holidays. Why would I, of all Sundays, want to go to a worse than usual service just because it was around Easter?! At least they could try to be original. At my old church, the children’s pastor did the same incredibly lame “Christmas story as told by candy bars” gimmick a few years in a row. Even though the sermons have different words (usually) every year, they are all the same thing too:
- Easter isn’t what most people think
- Easter is about Jesus
- You should worship Jesus
- Get saved (and give us money!)
Of course the points above are occasionally spoken creatively, but they are always the same at the core.
So to anyone who may ask, no I am not going to church this Sunday. And while you’re at it, stop telling me I need to find a church I like. They don’t exist. Especially on Christmas and Easter.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:27
I definitely know what you mean about lameness due to the holidays. However, I’ve neever once been disappointed by an Easter Vigil Mass in the Catholic Church.
It’s a fusion of celebrations… not just the resurrection. It takes place the night before Easter Sunday. The service begins outside the church with lighting the Easter fire, and the proclamation of one of the wildest praises in Christianity, the “Exultet”, later, there’s a procession into a completely dark church, with everyone bearing candles… 6-7 Scripture readings are proclaimed, starting from Genesis 1, going through the Old Testament prophetic messages of redemption and liberation. Each one (in churches that don’t cut it short) has it’s own Psalm response. After the Gospel reading, new members are brought into the church… some are baptized all are confirmed.. They’ve been preparing for this moment for eight months to a year, sometimes longer. The whole congregation then renews their baptismal promises. The church is now filled with light.
A sermon follows, but it’s usually very short… it’s understood that the images, rites, and symbols communicate far more than the priest can with words. After that, the neophytes celebrate their first communion, and the rest of the congregation follows.
Sometimes it’s more than frimmin’… It can be… devastating!
March 19th, 2008 at 20:55
Dude, I gave up on organized religion. You don’t need to be a part of a church to be religous.
You are 100% correct, they don’t exist, and they all do the exact same thing every single week. I think churches are over crowded on holidays because that is when non believers feel obligated to go to church. Why, I have no idea. FYI hypocrisy is the biggest reason i left the church amongst a few other things. “hell no, we won’t go!” hahahaha
March 19th, 2008 at 22:19
Agreed.
March 20th, 2008 at 13:56
quit mincing words and tell us how you really feel!
March 21st, 2008 at 12:42
Dude. I feel your pain/frustration. This is one of the reasons I’m leaving my “worship director” job. I think “The Church” can be a fine, positive and loving place - but there sure can be a lot of silly, shallow “show” to the whole ordeal. Sometimes the leadership is trying way too hard. And easter can be a good time to amp up the Cheese.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:53
Definitely a lot of cheese.