Why do protestants celebrate a Catholic Saint's feast day?

R.I.P. Buddy D

Are you a puritan?

quote:

---

Why do protestants celebrate a Catholic Saint's feast day?

---

I don't know of any protestant who celebrates Valentine's day with the saint in mind. It is not a religious, but a secular holiday that celebrates romance.

I celebrate it because it allows me to buy my wife flowers, take her out to dinner and for atleast one day make her forget what a jerk I can be.

Aggie4Life's right.

Whether Protestants, Catholics, or Mormons, I think almost everyone thinks of Valentines Day or celebrates it in the Hallmark card romance day terms.

There may even be Jews that do --- its accurate to call it virtually a secular holiday now, both in aim and scope.

Good point titan, I also believe the same can be said for christmas

R.I.P. Buddy D

No it can't.

Purdue - do you really not consider x-mas a secular holiday? I personally know of Jewish people that give "christmas presents" to go along with channukah. I also know of an atheist that gives people christmas presents. If it is not considered by many a secular holiday, then why the big put christ in christmas campaign

R.I.P. Buddy D

The question was whether "almost everyone" celebrates it as a secular holiday. Significantly higher church turnout leads me to believe otherwise.

I'm an avowed atheist who loves Christmas.

But I never put up a tree. I just like the presents.

well of course some christains celebrate it religiously, but that is not the point. Some people celebrate valentines day in a religious context also.

R.I.P. Buddy D

coffner is right if you consider it in "transition" --- just as almost all real sign or significance of Valentine's Day overshadowed, Christmas is headed that way.

However Purdue is right in that a very large block, unlike Valentine's Day, especially at the adult level, do not, and have never seen Christmas as separate from Our Lord's birth.

You might say its a case of where Santa meets the Manger. Because of p.c., these two previously more cooperating elements have become increasingly parted, where courts and other dumb things drive out Nativity scenes and references to Christ.

quote:

---

It is not a religious, but a secular holiday that celebrates romance.

---

http://www.pictureframes.co.uk/pages/saint_valentine.htm#history

Just because you don't celebrate it as a religous holiday doesn't make it a secular holiday. Every time St. Valentine's Day comes around he is mentioned at the masses I attend and how Valentine's came around. The priest usually jokes about how it is celebrated today with cards, flowers, etc., just like St. Patrick's Day is celebrated with drinking green beer, but it originated from a religious action, person, etc. and regardless of your beliefs is pretty interesting.

quote:

---

Good point titan, I also believe the same can be said for Christmas

---

Christmas being an abbreviation for "Christ's Mass" ....

73 - that has absolutely no bearing on the point of discussion

R.I.P. Buddy D

quote:

---

Just because you don't celebrate it as a religous holiday doesn't make it a secular holiday.

---

It is secular to everyone but Roman Catholics. Most Catholics don't even associate the holiday with the religious saint.

And for the record:

Although the mid-February holiday celebrating love and lovers remains wildly popular, the confusion over its origins led the Catholic Church, in 1969, to drop St. Valentine's Day from the Roman calendar of official, worldwide Catholic feasts. (Those highly sought-after days are reserved for saints with more clear historical record. After all, the saints are real individuals for us to imitate.) Some parishes, however, observe the feast of St. Valentine.

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/ValentinesDay/

I look at this issue somewhat like a symbol and it's referent. Take a peace symbol. To some it stands for peace, to others it's a symbol of the whole 60's revolution, to others its a communist/satanic symbol.

My point is that it's all of those; each one is a different referent for the symbol. The holidays are like that to me. I am aware that most "Christian" holidays are "baptized" pagan holidays, but I don't celebrate the pagan aspects, just the Christian ones.

Christmas is a time of giftgiving, when we remember and celebrate the fact that at some point in space and time Jesus, one of the persons of the holy trinity, was incarnated as a man, for my/our salvation. That's what it important to me.

The only aspect of holidays that I stay away from is the Santa Claus aspect of Christman. We pretended in Santa when the kids were young. I say pretend because they always knew that we were the source of the gifts not some quasi-god. And they had the fun of the fantasy, but did not confuse the reality with Santa with the reality of Jesus.

I saw something one Christman that completely freaked me out. I saw a manger scene with Santa bowing down before Jesus. I thought...interesting, mixture of myths, at least that what it looks like.

Many kids, when they find out Santa is mom and dad oftentimes follow up with the question, "Is Jesus real?" because they are similar in a kid's mind.

[This message has been edited by The Lone Stranger (edited 7/25/2005 8:08p).]

quote:

---

Many kids, when they find out Santa is mom and dad oftentimes follow up with the question, "Is Jesus real?" because they are similar in a kid's mind.

---

You are correct here. I know personally several friends from HS who used this same line of reasoning in becoming athiests.