So recently Answers.com wrote a piece Important Mormon Holidays Celebrated by the Latter-Day Saints. In this article they listed 5 holidays that are very important to the LDS faith. Those were
Sacrament
The Feast of First Fruits
The Feast of Tabernacles
Blessings
Thanksgiving
The meme above pretty much sums up my reaction and the reaction of all of my LDS friends and family. The Feast of the First Fruits? Seriously? I’ve never even heard of such a holiday let alone celebrated it. It sounds like a holiday stemming more from the Lord of the Flies than the LDS religion. Only the first and last are even remotely true and while we do celebrate blessings, it’s not a “holiday” or a community thing and it’s no different from when families/friends get together to celebrate birthdays or other special occasion of the family.
So we wanted to set the record straight or at least put forth a list of some of the holidays that we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints actually do celebrate, specifically here in the United States. Those holidays are:
New Year’s Eve
Easter
Fourth of July
Memorial Day
24th of July (Mainly in Utah as it is a state holiday)
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas
The Super Bowl
Ok so the last one is more of a pseudo holiday for my family personally and not reflective of the LDS faith in general but the argument could easily be made that even the Super Bowl is more of a holiday than half of the list that Answers.com provided. 🙂
The point of our article is to clarify for those who might not be familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and may come across this article believing that it was an accurate piece. Other than the 24th of July celebration, celebrating the pioneers entering the Salt Lake Valley, all of the other holidays are holidays that everyone in the country celebrates. I have no idea where they pulled the previous list from and I’m still looking for an Onion article that may have been used as a reference guide by the writer.
Hopefully this will dismiss some of the wildly inaccurate reporting by Answers.com and if they really want anyone to take their site seriously, I would probably recommend pulling the article.
I always think of General Conference weekends of a holiday. We have family traditions that go along with watching conference.
General Conference weekend is definitely more of a holiday than many that were listed.
I think of it that way too. I have a tradition where a group of my family and friends get together and I make Pizza crusts then everyone brings toppings to put on them. I usually only make enough crusts to make 5-6 crusts on any other day but on Conference I always have enough crusts until everyone has had a chance to make a pizza. My record is 9 full size pizzas from a single batch.
What about Easter?
That one was a no brainer. Thanks for the comment
Super Bowl? Really? I missed that memo.
Just trying to be a bit satirical. Clearly didn’t mean to be serious. 🙂
Waahhhahahaha, people are so funny. First Fruit? Where the heck did that come from? Feast of the Tabernacle? I love to eat, if I could have those feast, you bet I would….
The Feast of First Fruits and the Feast of Tabernacles are Jewish holidays. The author of the other article probably thought we were more Jewish than Christian.
Thanks for the information.
There is no such thing as the Feast of the First Fruits in Judaism. There is however the Feast of the Tabernacle.
The Feast of First Fruits is called Bikkurim. It is held on the first day if the Festival of Matzah.
Hm. Michael, this is interesting. I can see how you are saying this. But Bikkurim really only means “first fruits”. Bikkurim isn’t actually a Feast, as it were. This is a practice–one of a succession of practices. And in this respect, I can also see how Answers made their flying leap from Judaism to Latter-day Saint practice only if someone there knew enough about very early Church history and ignored present day Church practices; because in the early days of the Church, when the law of consecration was attempted in the form of the United Order, they also practiced Bikkurim as well. The practice is to give the lord your first–first of anything you produced. Bikkurim is a similitude of the First Born. It is used in all sacrifices and gifts.
To my understanding as a former Ancient Near Eastern Studies major (BYU), the Bikkurim of which you speak, neither noted as a major or minor holiday (festival) is the practice of giving to God the first fruits as the initiatory process followed by a sacrifice remembering how the Lord rescued the Jews from captivity. It is done as part of the Passover–the Festival called Pesach. Matzah is not a festival. It means unleven–or unleven bread. It is the cracker, the unleavened bread, used in the Passover and eaten at the Sedar–the actual meal of the Passover.
The bikkurim in Judaism (Lev 23:9-14) is a practice in anticipation of and just preceding a burnt offering (sacrifice) during the Pesach. It is the third feast, which as I mentioned above, is neither a feast as we know it (like Thanksgiving) or a holiday. But a ritual as part of a holiday (festival)–Pesach (Passover). It involves the waving of a stem and leaf of the first grain, traditionally Barley because is was the first to harvest in spring there, followed by a lamb sacrifice.
Jewish Christians practices a form of First Fruits where they assimilate the old concept of first fruits (Bikkurim) with the risen Lord at Easter. It is they who sometimes modify the original Jewish practice into a feast referred to as the Feast of First Fruits. It is a different celebration and not inclusive in Judaism While the Passover (Pesach) has daily rituals symbolic of their anticipation of eventual and full rescue, the Christian version takes the First Fruits concept and applies it to Easter.
🙂
Even though it’s not “celebrated” outside Utah, I would add the U of U vs BYU game as a local holiday. I know I celebrate when my Utes beat the snot out of the Cougars.
lol
If they were going to include blessings then they missed baptisms, mission farewells, mission homecomings, confirmations, etc. They are at least as well “celebrated” as infant blessings.
Very true but then again from the other parts of the article, I don’t think they researched that deeply into it.
The Feast of the First Fruits and The Feast of the Tabernacles are Jewish holidays.
There is no such thing as the Feast of the First Fruits in the Judaism. There is however the Feast of the Tabernacle, or Sukkot.
Hahhaha!!!!!!! 🙂 I love silly Mormon belief stories! One I got from a neighbor when we first moved to colorado, she heard we put all our little girls in the temple to grow up until they are ready to be picked as a wife. She said I kind of figured that wasn’t true since I saw your daughter out riding her bike all the time 🙂 my son had a funny one at school just recently too. One of his friends said I heard you all have to wear ctr rings or you’ll go to hell. Nathan said I sooooo wish I had been wearing mine so I could slide it off my finger and pretend to explode! Boom! Hahahahaa!!!!!!!!!
Did you see they updated the post on Answers.com: http://religion.answers.com/latter-day-saints/important-mormon-holidays-celebrated-by-the-latter-day-saints
Did notice that they updated it. 🙂 Glad that they did.
Answers.com just updated their information. I love it when they get it right!
Just saw it. 🙂
Forget the Onion. The original article–which I actually read–was about a break-off sect called the Strangites.
Independence Day? Seems like a pretty important one that was hugely missed on your list. Otherwise, I agree.
My hubby found where Answers.com may have found their info. Google James J. Strang. It was from something he wrote.
0