Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Holiday Celebrations

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 12/6/02 10:09 AM, "Michael Arnott" <mikearnott [at] juno.com> wrote:

> We would like to find out from other co-ho's how you handle the issue of
> holidays celebrations and decorations in common areas.  Holiday
> celebrations like a seder that are time specific in which one can choose
> to participate or not participate, and decorations like lights on a tree
> in the Common House during December, that are always present.

Seders as one time events have not been a problem. Actual religious services
have been excluded.

Christmas was a bit of a problem last year but negotiations were done. The
tree stood for almost two weeks but the decorations did not include angels
or a nativity scene. Basically no Jesus stuff.

The bind is having holidays that are so whitewashed they satisfy no one or
"real" holidays that offend someone.

What the whole debate has taught me is that what one person sees as secular
another sees as religious. One observant Jewish member told me the Friday
night "gatherings" were not services, just some singing and dancing. A
Quaker could not understand why a Quaker meeting would be excluded as a
religious service -- it was just people sitting around. And I heard myself
say, but Christmas isn't a religious holiday!

What is important to most of us is the happy memories of family celebrations
that the religious symbols trigger, not the imposition of our religions on
others. But without the happy memories, those same symbols become foreign
objects that make us feel excluded in our own commonhouse. The more our
commonhouse becomes a commonhome, the stronger this seems to get. It takes
so long to create new traditions and new memories that have substance.


Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l