I'm trying to identify a religion from clues

[NightWatcher]

This is cross posted in Religon as well. I'm not trying to offend but merely satisfy my curiosity.

A friend of my kid in school participates in a religion that does not celebrate typical religious holidays (Easter, Christmas...) in fact she does not participate when the rest of the class would do something religious based. Her teacher was great and only mentions the secular aspects of those seasons instead of holidays so the kid isn't left out.

She does participate in Thanksgiving (non religious) but not in birthdays although she is allowed to eat cupcakes when it's another child's birthday. The only other thing they celebrate are "feasts" as she calls them that are scattered throughout the year. Some of these are multi day observances. She told me today that there is another feast tomorrow, April 7th. If it matters, the kid is caucasian and doesn't appear to be of anything other than European origin with no accent. She shows no outward signs of any religion (no different dress or religious hair style or religious jewelry).

I don't want to ask and make her feel uncomfortable, and at this point it's strictly to satisfy my curiosity since I thought I was aware of other religions more than I apparently am.

If this offends anyone, please let me know and I'll delete.

[jberryhill]

1. Jehovah's Witness

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses

"They do not observe Christmas, Easter, birthdays or other holidays and customs they consider to have pagan origins incompatible with Christianity."

[NightWatcher]

2. I thought that as well, but the addition of Feasts scattered throughout the year threw me.

[jberryhill]

5. Seventh Day Adventist

Does she eat meat and/or go to church on Sunday?

Keeping "feast days" is a subject of debate in Seventh Day Adventism, but in your brief description, the standout would have been "goes to church on Saturday instead of Sunday".

http://www.adventistonline.com/forum/topics/should-we-as-sda-s-be-keeping-the-feast-days

[NCTraveler]

3. Her religious beliefs are that of her parents.

"she does not participate when the rest of the class would do something religious based"

Every single classmate knows or has at least asked. Have you asked your kid? Few are more curious.

[Orsino]

4. Sounds like Pagan/Wiccan observances, maybe?

http://www.wiccanfamilytemple.org/calendar/pagan-calendar-of-observances/

[NightWatcher]

7. Thanks, I was checking calendars of observances but yours was more thorough.

My kid is in a very diverse class and it's great. Her teacher handles diversity very well and will not tolerate anyone putting another child on the spot re their beliefs.

[moriah]

23. That's not a standard mainstream holiday, but it's possible some celebrate it.

Most Pagans celebrate the solstices and eqinoxes as low holidays, and the "cross-quarter" days -- generally on May 1, August 2, October 31, and February 2, as high holidays. There's no full or new moon tomorrow either.... but most Pagans celebrate all of the above on whatever day closest is most convenient.

[Doreen]

26. That is what I thought.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Either JW or SDA.

If it's Seventh Day Adventist, they'll get very vocal about having to do anything on a Saturday.

Sounds more like Jehovah's Witness to me.

[jberryhill]

8. Yeah, I went with JW since Saturday would have been a standout tell

The birthday thing is IMHO peculiar to JW's.

[TheDebbieDee]

13. My mother was a JW and as a child, I never understood

The b-day squashing! What's religious abt a birthday?

As with many other religious customs of ALL the varying religions, I think this b-day thing is a mountain/molehill thing...

[jberryhill]

14. Apparently, the only time birthdays are mentioned in the Bible, they are not laudable people

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/birthdays/

"The Bible never refers to a servant of God celebrating a birthday."

The Bible likewise never refers to a servant of God driving a Honda, but, whatever.

[TheDebbieDee]

17. I'm not singling out JWs but like I said

Mountain/molehill...

[haele]

19. No, one of Jesus's miracles must have included a Honda...

"Now let us all with one Accord"...

Haele

[RedWedge]

9. The rejection of mainstream Christian holidays and birthdays and talk of "feasts" makes me think

it's what's known as Church at Home. They're Christians, but they celebrate only the feasts that Jesus and the apostles marked. Christmas and Easter are seen as pagan holidays that should be rejected.

ETA: Here's a link: http://fredcoulter.com/beliefs.htm ETA again: There's an autoplay audio on there.

[NightWatcher]

10. Thanks for this. This is a new one for me and the current front runner in this case.

[RedWedge]

11. It has a pretty low profile, but the internet has helped it grow (like so many things). I am

acquainted with someone who follows it, so it's on my radar.

[oberliner]

12. Not celebrating birthdays is a Jehovah's Witness thing

They don't celebrate Christmas or Easter also, so this sounds like them.

[Freddie]

16. My mom was an elementary teacher

Had to be real careful about celebrating birthdays and holidays because there was always one JW kid in her class and the parents would get real offended at the slightest thing. Like she put a turkey sticker on a kids paper for a good grade when it was Nov. and got grief from a parent.
But they do celebrate life events like weddings and graduations.

[Lee-Lee]

15. I've got a big chart or various religious holidays here

And the only ones that I see lining up with April 7 are Greek and Russian orthodox churches.

[Drahthaardogs]

20. Orthodox keep a different Calendar

But align with Catholic and Coptic religions. They celebrate Christmas and Easter

[TexasProgresive]

18. Could be Jewish or Christian Biblical Church of God

As close as I can tell the child’s family may be celebrating the Passover and are using the Friday, April 7th as preparation for the Sabbath on Saturday and for the coming days of the Passover beginning Monday.
In 2017, Passover will be celebrated from April 10–18
Passover (Pesach) 2017 will be celebrated Monday April 10 to Tuesday April 18. April 7 Friday at sunset begins the Sabbath before Passover.
From the :Truth of God website

https://www.cbcg.org/feasts-holydays/shd/sabbath-before-passover-2017.html
Sabbath Before Passover – 2017
The Bread of Life
How are you going to eat Jesus' flesh and drink His blood?
Fred R. Coulter—April 8, 2017
Greetings, brethren! Welcome to the Sabbath before the Passover 2017. This Sabbath we're going to have a special study in understanding more about eating and drinking Christ, which is the very center of the Passover service.
• What does it mean?
• How do we understand it?
Tomorrow night we're going to have the Passover. And the Passover is the most important thing to keep us in good standing with God, the most important thing for us to understand about God.

[RedWedge]

21. This was my guess, too -- also known as Church at Home.

[marybourg]

28. "eating and drinking Christ, which is the very center of the Passover service."

I don't know what this quote came from and don't care, but Passover has nothing at all to do with Christ - much less eating and drinking him. He wasn't even born when Passover was first celebrated.

Now these wing-nut are trying to take over Judaism?

[TexasProgresive]

29. Catholics and many main line Protestants

Think of Christ as the Lamb of God as in Paschal Lamb. This is not new.

[marybourg]

30. And they announce that eating and drinking

Christ is the very center of the Passover service? Not in my experience of attending interfaith Passover seders back in the ecumenical 70's. Sorry, I find it offensive and anti-Semitic.

[TexasProgresive]

31. Not defending this group which may well be anti-Semietic

The Catholic Mass is, admittedly, a stylized Seder if you will with the lamb being the Lamb of God, Jesus' body and blood.
Just prior to the reception of holy Communion the priest elevates the unleavened bread above the cup of wine that Catholics believe is in actual fact the body and blood of Christ with only the appearance of bread and wine. The then says:

Behold the Lamb of God,
behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.
And together with the people he adds once:
Lord, I am not worthy
that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word
and my soul shall be healed.

While this may not be as overt as this man's teaching but in is the teaching of the Catholic Church that every Eucharistic celebration is the Paschal mystery with the one of the Easter Vigil (on the evening before Easter Sunday) is the pinnacle.
Edit- Easter is only called that in English speaking countries for some odd reason in honor of Eostre a western German goddess of spring. Nearly all other countries and languages use some form of Pascha.

A snip from:The Theological, Spiritual, and Practical Meaning of the Eucharist
by Benedictine Fr. Thomas Acklin Senior Fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and Director of Counseling at St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania

The Last Supper of Jesus was a celebration of the Pasch, the Passover meal in which the Israelites were incorporated into God’s chosen people as they ate the Paschal Lamb before their exodus from Egypt to the promised land. This sacrificial meal grounded a special relationship with the Lord, gave them an identity as his people, and strengthened their covenant with him. Jesus established a new covenant, a new relationship with us, through offering not a lamb but himself, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. When we do this in memory of him, we do it at a meal, the new Paschal Meal participating in the Paschal Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catechesis/catechetical-sunday/eucharist/upload/catsun-2011-doc-acklin-meaning.pdf

[moriah]

22. I don't think JW. My grandmother was and she didn't celebrate Thanksgiving.

It looks like most don't because of both alleged Pagan harvest festivals being sacrilegious, and because it's a nationalistic/patriotic holiday.

SDAs (this year, at least) don't have a feast, fast, or holiday on April 7. https://www.adventist.org/en/information/special-days/ They do celebrate birthdays and are less restrictive about patriotic holidays than JWs, usually include some Christmassy and Easter-like things on the Sabbath closest to the holiday, etc. If she was vegetarian SDAs might be a more likely situation.

The closest I could find to an April 7th holiday is a Julian calendar Eastern Orthodox saint's day and then Lazarus Day on the 8th, but while my ex was Eastern Orthodox and celebrated birthdays (and so did his mother). As far as Paganism, the dates in general for March-May are March 21st and May 1st, none in April.

I can't find any Muslim feasts/holidays until later in April, or Jewish holidays before Passover, which isn't starting until the 10th at sundown.

I'm as baffled as you are unless your child is confused about the date and the other student was talking about today or another date -- today is the date of celebration of the Mormon church founding, and fundamentalist LDS sects are widespread and not all unde the Warren Jeff's FLDS sect. Mainline LDS have more holidays including Easter, Christmas, and patriotic holidays, but even in the pre-Jeffs era (probably more typical of other, non-FLDS fundamentalist Mormons today than the larger FLDS) they discouraged Christmas trees and birthday celebrations per Carolyn Blackmore Jessop's books.

If it's the 7th, I would suspect a obscure but modern fundamentalist Christian religious group that doesn't really do formal church but, like the Bill Gothard cult, instead focuses on having home churches.

[EllieBC]

24. JW. The no Birthday thing would make me think JW.

I'm not aware of any other religion that doesn't permit birthday celebrations.

[Decoy of Fenris]

25. There are quite a few religions similar to that, but I'm thinking Orthodox.

My first thought is either Greek or Russian Orthodox, since they have numerous "feast-days", but those days are flexible or rigid depending on which day you're talking about. Likewise, rather than "Birthdays", Orthodox tend to celebrate "Name-days". I'll admit my knowledge of Orthodox practice is woefully lacking, but what you're describing sounds fairly similar to practices of the Russian or Greek Orthodox churches. (Could also be JW, as stated above a few times.)

[tblue37]

27. Sounds like Jehovah's Witness. My sister and her kids are JWs, and those

restrictions applied when they were in school.

They also couldn't be in the band, because bands' marching music is often martial, and that is a no-no. They couldn't swear oaths, either (including the Pledge).