Holidays in Mormonism

[PattyPryor]

Hi this is just MY THOUGHTS

I wasn’t Mormon long because I really saw fault in it. But anyway… thats not the point of this post.

I find it so interesting that Mormons don’t go to church on Christmas eve and other holidays. In fact in the ward I was in. Easter was an hour then you went home.

I think thats why I was happy to come home to the Catholic Church because there is so much more meaning in the liturgical year

What do you all think?

 

[J_C]

one of my mormon friends told me their big day is April 6th. he said that is Jesus’ birthday, and also the day their church was established by Joseph Smith. I need to ask him about how that calculation is made that Jesus was definitely born on that day.

 

[GIMJ]

one of my mormon friends told me their big day is April 6th. he said that is Jesus’ birthday, and also the day their church was established by Joseph Smith. I need to ask him about how that calculation is made that Jesus was definitely born on that day.

There is no calculation. Joseph Smith, who was the founder of Mormonism, claimed it was revealed to him.

Your friend is being disingenuous. They don’t observe it as a holiday or anything of the like. It’s not a “big day.” Mormons would think there’s something wrong with you if you tried to make it into anything more than an interesting bit of trivia (Guess what Jesus’ real birthday is??).

Mormons celebrate the same holidays secular Americans do

Beginning a few weeks before Christmas, they will sing a Christmas song or two in their sacrament meetings, and in a lot of wards they will read the Christmas story from the pulpit the Sunday before Christmas. Some Mormons will do something special on Easter Sunday, but it’s not church-wide and it’s not anything like what Catholics do.

 

[J_C]

thank you GIMJ. I may have misunderstood my firiend. i think I got distracted when he said Jesus was born on April 6th. I wondered why it mattered what day he was born on, and the converstaion went on from there, rather than a discussion of how mormons celebrate holidays. I had already known that Joseph established the LDS church on April 6th 1830, which I suppose was a date when the church was officially chartered under NY state law? So when it was said that this was Jesus’ birthday I figured there was more than coincidence at work.

 

[GIMJ]

thank you GIMJ. I may have misunderstood my firiend. i think I got distracted when he said Jesus was born on April 6th. I wondered why it mattered what day he was born on, and the converstaion went on from there, rather than a discussion of how mormons celebrate holidays. I had already known that Joseph established the LDS church on April 6th 1830, which I suppose was a date when the church was officially chartered under NY state law? So when it was said that this was Jesus’ birthday I figured there was more than coincidence at work.

Yes, that’s the day Joseph Smith’s church was legally formed (although it wasn’t the same as the modern day Mormon church - JS’s church died out long ago, but that’s for an entirely different thread).

I think you’re right that it’s more than coincidence. In my opinion, Joseph Smith just made this up out of thin air to please his followers. Smith had a habit of sharing many “prophecies” and “revelations” that would entertain his audience at the time, but later presented troubles when he contradicted himself or they failed to come about.

 

[LaMar]

April 6th was observed much more fervently in my childhood than it is today.

The only distinctly Mormon holiday which exists today is called Pioneer Day. (July 24) It’s roughly analogous to Independence Day, Canada Day or something like that. It has to do with finally settling in our own society in the Salt Lake Valley (which was at that time in a deserted part of Mexico) and setting up our own autonomous government.

We had our own system of doing things, which included collective farms (very similar to the kolkhoz you would find in Stalin’s USSR, or kibbutzim in Israel). We had our own family system which was very different from the American norm (polygynous in some cases).

Since being subsumed into the U.S., Pioneer Day has been celebrated as a state holiday in Utah (it used to be in Arizona also, but I don’t think this is the case now) and is observed by Mormon communities elsewhere. I’ve been to parades as far afield as Juarez Mexico, and Cardston, Alberta.

 

[PattyPryor]

Well going through the holy week I don’t see anything more beauitful in celebrating God then the lenten Easter service. The Mormon church down plays church service soooo much.

I just can’t really see how they honor our Lord Jesus. I’m sorry but argue all you want but no one really celebrates Jesus in Mormonism

 

[Paul_G]

Well going through the holy week I don’t see anything more beauitful in celebrating God then the lenten Easter service. The Mormon church down plays church service soooo much.{/quote]

While as a bachelor of music student I attended several masses at a near by monastery the music was wonderful. Could you tell me how you would celebrate “the Lenten Easter service”.

I just can’t really see how they honor our Lord Jesus. I’m sorry but argue all you want but no one really celebrates Jesus in Mormonism