Welcome one and all to a year long experiment I am attempting for 2010. I decided that for the entire year, I will be celebrating as many of the major religious holidays for as many major religions as I possibly can.
A bit of background is in order to explain this. You see, i am by nature not a religious person. I was once Christian, in the sense that I occasionally went to church (Episcopal, if you care to know) and believed in God. When I hit my teen years, I began to question my beliefs (as many teenagers do). I just never really came back to a belief in God. For a long time, I considered myself an atheist, but as I have grown older this has shifted more to agnostic. In recent years this shift in belief has once more eased up to become a belief in some higher power, but not in any single religious faith.
Despite this lack of "faith," I have had a deep fascination of religion for a long time. I have done a little bit of comparing of different faiths. Nothing deeper than a surface glance. Along the lines of a Complete Idiot's Guide to Religion. A quick glance at everything, without a deeper understanding.
A few years back, I saw the movie "The Order." This movie, for those unaware of it, deals with a Catholic priest who ends up encountering a man who claims to be a Sin Eater. Sin Eaters, according to the movie, are able to take the sins of others onto themselves to ensure passage of the sinner into Heaven. The act of taking the evils of one person, so they may find redemption despite the unusual edicts of the church intrigued me. I liked the idea of allowing an otherwise good person to be forgiven a sin that (in my mind) should not be a sin to begin with. Mainly, I was thinking of things along the lines of homosexuality. I see no reason a person should not be allowed eternal bliss because of a fluke of their birth. So, I went online and researched sin eating. It turns out, the historical examples were more for medieval villages without access to a priest than the movie version. But, in my searching, I found out about the Universal Life Church. This is a California-based church that offers ordainment online. So, I got myself ordained. partially as a joke, but also so that I could indeed forgive sins and get people into heaven.
Over the years, I have also bought a handful of books regarding religions and philosophy. A bible here, book by Plato there. Along the way, i took a couple philosophy classes (mostly Ethics and Logic related). Philosophy of Religions was probably the most interesting, and most pertinent to this project. Most of these books have been piled up, and left unopened for years.
Jump ahead to the end of 2009. I was trying to come up with a good resolution for the new year. I always try to usual "work harder, save money, eat better" stuff everyone tries. I also always fail at it within days. So, I thought that this year I would try something different. I would do something fun, interesting, and lacking in guilt if I happen to fail. Thinking on my book collection and eclectic tastes, I decided I would try a two part resolution. I would celebrate every religious holiday, and I would try to write about it all. This would jump start my stalling writing hobby as well as enrich me by teaching me about the beliefs and practices of others.
This blog will be my journal of what i learn during this journey, as well as anything that may tie in with my study of religion over the coming year. Who knows, I may actually learn something about myself.
As a final note, the religions I am officially looking to are: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Paganism, and (just for fun) Discordianism. All holidays I have chosen were listed on GodWeb. I only chose the holidays listed for the year that specifically had links to a page describing the holiday in more detail. I chose all of the linked holidays, regardless of significance (the thought being that if it had a page of its own, it was important and if it did not have such a page it was worth ignoring for now). All information I am using for celebrations is gleaned from Wikipedia I do realize the fallibility of this source, but it is convenient.
I am open to any communications from actual practitioners of the religions I have chosen (as well as any I have neglected) as to any information I have missed. I especially welcome information on the reasons for the celebration as well as proper rituals and practices to go with the holiday or festival.
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