Empathizing with Holidays

Visiting our neighbors as they prepare the animals
and wood for the big bonfire roast

I’ve gained even more respect for Christians in the Sahel as I’ve seen them interact with the big festivals of the majority of their neighbors. When everyone around you is celebrating a specific holiday and doing similar activities, which they tend to forget not all people are taking part in, I can see how it could be really annoying, make Christians resentful that it dominates several days, and might prompt them to lash out or be negative. But this is not how they behave at all. We were immediately taught to give the appropriate greetings for the period, which include saying “blessings on the festival,” and “may God bring us safely to next year’s festival.” The message we’ve picked up from mature Christians here is that they receive meat and food graciously from their neighbors, and in turn they share meat at Christmas and Easter as a way of reciprocating. What a refreshing way of thinking about someone else’s festival- that without celebrating it yourself, you can wish them well and have empathy with the fact that they feel they have something to celebrate!

Lest I get too warm and fuzzy with affirming all possible beliefs, I also find it important that the Apostle Paul warns (e.g. Rom 14:16-23) us of the fine line between exercising our freedom to share in other people’s joy and harmfully encouraging others to think we agree with what is damaging or false. From another perspective, we’ve heard that a friend’s church teaches their members to respond to all references or invitations regarding the festivals with an explanation of why they don’t participate (i.e. they have a Savior who has already died to wash away their sin). In another flavor of response, our church also had some participation in a worship service that happened roughly the same time as the major religious services of the festival, which appeared to give Christians an alternative way to celebrate and an opportunity to not be around their neighbors for part of the day. Some have told us this is helpful because these celebrations and time of year can create nostalgia and be hardest for new believers to stay true to their faith.