How Christians Respond to the Variety of Christian Festivals

How Christians Respond to the Variety of Christian Festivals

There are many festivals for us to respond to and the first festival

is Christmas. The festival of Christmas is a time when we remember the

birth of Jesus and how he died for us. During Christmas and the time

leading up to it we change our attitudes and behaviour towards people

who are in need of help or care e.g. the poor. We do this by giving

food to the school hamper or raising money for charity. We also change

our lifestyles by doing things we normally wouldn’t, like try to be

more friendly towards people we may not like or just be more friendly

in general. Even if the most we can give is only a little and we do it

quietly it will still be the right thing to do. When we do this it is

called giving alms. It is like the woman in the story of the widows

offering, were she gave a little donation, but it was all she had.

When we give alms we feel good about ourselves because we are helping

others and showing God that we respect him. In order to give alms we

also have to give things up and make sacrifices e.g. don’t buy any

sweets from the way home from school or stop getting the weekly

magazine you usually get. This effects our attitudes and behaviour by

putting us in other peoples shoes and recognising the different views

and perspectives of other people who are less privileged. Our school

got to experience the good feeling of helping others last year when

we raised £4,000 and sent it to Sudan to build a public library.

Another festival which Christians respond to is the Epiphany. During

the festival of the Epiphany we remember when the three wise men came

to Bethlehem to visit the baby Jesus and gave him gifts of gold,

frankincense and myrrh. This effects our lifestyles, attitudes and

behaviour in many different ways e.g. it makes us think about the

gifts we gave other people at Christmas and the significance of the