Tonight my family will be celebrating Passover with friends, and Sunday we will celebrate Easter with my family. Break out the wine and eggs! My kid's father is Jewish. Members of my family are of varying Christian denominations; Lutheran, Catholic, Southern Baptist... As a child I went to a Lutheran parochial school.I remember being in social studies learning about China in fifth grade. I fretted when I was taught that these children if not raised Christian would not have ever lasting life and go to heaven. This was the beginning of my curiosity about my religion verses other religions. The curiosity and therefore intention to study other religions evolved into me marrying a Jewish man. My children and I are a product of a mixed marriage. I was raised Lutheran and their father was raised Jewish.
Is an interfaith family too complicated? Many have asked if my life has been complicated trying to raise the children under two different religions. I have to say, celebrating both sets of holidays makes for a very busy year. Other than that, I find it rewarding in many ways. I believe by being raised under both religions, it makes them more tolerant of others based on race, color, sex, religion, other cultures, etc... The most important part in raising the kids in such a way is to raise them "respecting" their heritage.
My philosophy is, "God is too big for one religion". The more I learned about other religions the more I realized one religion could not fully encompass who I wanted to be and what values and traditions I wanted to embrace in my life and raise my children with. Was this an identity crises? Far from it. It was very freeing to not feel contained or held to one belief- one way of doing things. It was a leap of faith, in essence a leap to many faiths. I just did not fit well in the lines of one. I have learned meditation through Buddhism. I have learned more about balance through Taoism.
The world seems to be getting smaller by the day. The ability to travel worldwide and also with the help of the Internet, we can easily be in touch with people across the planet daily. Tolerance is not enough. We raise our kids to be fascinated with other traditions, cultures and religions. I have studied in depth many religions world wide. The one thing I can say with confidence is every religion has something positive to offer. On that note, we teach our children to embrace the beauty of each religion.
Factoid of the week: Colored eggs began as a Jewish tradition. A man and son were hiding in a cave, waiting for a signal from God so they knew when they could leave safely. The peered out one day and saw a rainbow. They knew this was the signal God gave them telling them they were safe to leave. After that, they colored eggs the color of the rainbow. I have shared this with my children. Every year this time they get to color eggs, celebrating both Judaism and Christianity. We call them Spring Eggs.
Easter is similar to the Jewish Holiday Yom Kippur. It is about forgiveness and cleansing oneself from their sins. This is what Jesus was out to teach us. Tolerance of one another. Passover is about being freed from slavery and persecution due to your religion. Something no human being should ever have to endure. Both holidays really offer great lessons in life on how to live with one another peacefully. What a great world this would be if we would embrace these lessons in our lives.
To learn about Passover click here: Passover
To learn about Easter click here: Easter
Happy Easter and Happy Pesach to those of you who celebrate these holidays. Feel free to share your holiday, if it is something other than the above. Enjoy!
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