Creating Muslim Christian Traditions

Creating Muslim Christmas Traditions

When I was young, one of the things I looked forward to the most during Christmas was opening the doors to my Advent calendar. My favourite calendars were the ones without chocolate traditional European styled posters, with small, thin doors that revealed simple pictures. There was something magical about finding the door, and trying to guess if the days surprise was a colourful candy cane, a wooden horse or a gingerbread cookie. Every year I would stare at the pictures que winter scene for hours imagining myself playing with the glistening snow and the sleigh-riding children.  I would wipe my hands across the Christmas star and carry the glitter on my hands all day long.

It was such a lovely and warm childhood memory, that I made my daughter Eryn an advent calendar for Ramadan.

After I converted to Islam, I quickly decided that because celebrating the cultural side of Christmas was a part of my life, family and history, I had no reason to not honour my parents and partake in our family Christmas traditions.

There is scholarly disagreement over whether Muslims can celebrate the more secular traditions, such as Mother's Day and Thanksgiving, some say no while others say there's no prohibition to celebrate other holidays outside of religious sphere. 

With Christmas however, the lines become blurred, because while there is a definite secular side to the holiday, many traditions like Advent hold religious meaning.

Irrespective of scholarly opinions on this holiday, not celebrating with my parents would cause more harm than good. My mom is German and Christmas is a very important part of her culture. Not celebrating it would be like abandoning her and her way of life. She has a granddaughter now, and of course, wants to see her legacy live on in our little interfaith family.

Because disrespecting parents is a great sin in Islam, I use Christmas as a time to celebrate and honour my family. By doing so, I become a better Muslim and have the opportunity to share my faith with them as well.

And now that my daughter is old enough to start appreciating Christmas as a really fun and exciting time, we all get the pleasure of rediscovering which traditions we can suitably incorporate into our Muslim, Christian and secular family celebrations.

This year there was a little bit of panic when Eryn came home from Montessori school, rubbing her pudgy tummy saying, "Ho Ho Ho" And some more panic when she became upset watching children cry on Santa's lap in the mall.  While the intent behind Santa is lovely, the materialism behind Coke-a-cola's rendition of the Weihnachtsmann is not something we want to instill in her.

So instead, we're teaching her about a very pious Saint Nicolaus who lived a very long time ago. He's known for his miracles, kindness and for his secret gift-giving of coins to the poor,  and because he was such a nice man, a very rich mythology has grown up around his legacy.  Her eyes always grow wide when we tell her this little story,  just like they do when I talk about the Prophet Muhammad or any other of my Mommy stories of historical figures.

She's two.  We're not expecting her to grasp the lessons behind materialism and mythology, but we are laying down the groundwork for her to be accepting of other's belief systems and religious history,  and hopefully, planting the seed that celebrating Christmas isn't at odds with her faith.

As for incorporating other Christmas traditions, we will definitely continue decorating my parent's tree, listening to carols, exchanging stockings, remembering Mary's birth story of her miraculous son, sharing a delicious Christmas Eve dinner with all of our Muslim friends, and wishing others a "Merry Christmas."

*Eryn is a pseudonym

Eryn decorating last year's tree - http://woodturtle.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/tree4.jpg

Ramadan "advent" calendar - http://woodturtle.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/img_1487-copy.jpg