The Universal House of Justice has received your email of 23
November 2002, and referred it to our Department for reply. You have explained
that as a result of an email discussion group there is a differing of opinions
whether Baha’is are permitted to celebrate Christmas, and you have expressed
your understanding that while there is no harm in sharing the festivities with
friends, the " Baha’is themselves should not be putting up Christmas
trees, exchanging gifts, etc."
As one member of your discussion group pointed out, a letter
written on behalf of the House of Justice has indeed indicated in the past that
although most of the cultural or religious festivals of other religions or
communities have no doubt stemmed from religious rituals in bygone ages, the
believers should not be deterred from participating in those in which, over the
course of time, the religious meaning has given way to purely culturally
oriented practices.
In deciding whether or not to participate in such
traditional activities, Baha’is must guard against two extremes. The one is to
disassociate themselves needlessly from harmless cultural observances and thus
alienate themselves from their non-Baha'i families and friends; the other is to
continue the practice of abrogated observances of previous dispensations and
thus undermine the independence of the Baha'i Faith and create undesirable
distinctions between themselves and their fellow Bahai'is. In this connection
there is a difference between what Baha’is
do among themselves and what they do in companionship with their non-Baha'i friends
and relations. We provide below a question posed to Shoghi Effendi by a believer,
followed by the response written on his behalf taken from a letter dated 19
March 1938, with which you are familiar. It is important to note, in the
response to the question, the phrase "in their relation to each
other".
QUESTION: Should we as Baha’is continue to celebrate the Christian holidays, such as Christmas and New Years, by the giving of gifts, sending greeting cards, Christmas trees, etc.?
ANSWER: As regards the celebration of the Christian Holidays
by the believers: it is surely preferable and even highly advisable that the friends
should in their relation to each other discontinue observing such holidays as
Christmas and New Year, and to have their festal gatherings of this nature
instead during the Intercalary Days and Naw-Ruz.
Additionally, we have the following guidance:
The Baha’is should give up the celebrating of Christian Holy
Days such as Christmas. The same applies to Baha’is of Jewish and Muslim
extraction etc. However, this is not a thing for the Spiritual Assemblies to
enforce now; but each one should conscientiously begin to do this--otherwise,
people will never know we are members of a new religion, but will think we are
just people believing two or three things at the same time. (Letter dated 15 August
1957 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual)
(From a letter dated 29 November 2002, written on behalf of
the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)
