I have a Muslim friend and she does not celebrate this holiday. As far as I'm concerned, they don't...
Is that right? Do they celebrate it in the movie to make Betty feel at home?
No rude comments please, I admit I know nothing about this religion or country. I am just curious.
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I think the simple explanation is that she and her daughter are christians. and therefore SHE celebrated it and not them. They just wished her a merry christmas and were in her company. I, being a christian originally from the middle east, remember celebrating christmas but often had many muslim friends and neighbors visit us for dinner and gifts. It's not uncommon. After all, many atheists or even jews celebrate Christmas nowadays since it hardly has anything to do with Jesus in all honesty.
shareAh, I see. I kinda thought that might be it, but the family didn't seem to like or agree with her at ALL, so I didn't think they would be that considerate.
Anyway, thank you, Mepark!
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After all, many atheists or even jews celebrate Christmas nowadays since it hardly has anything to do with Jesus in all honesty.
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No, I don't live in the Bible-belt. And just because people outside the Christian/Catholic faith celebrate Christmas doesn't mean the real meaning behind the holiday just vanishes. The whole point of Christmas is to celebrate Christ's birth; that is a fact, and anyone else who doesn't care about His birth shouldn't be celebrating the day.
Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.
*~Tennessee Williams~*
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Actually, Christmas is largely based on the Pagan celebration of the solstice. It was "borrowed" by Christianity to celebrate the birth of Jesus - who wasn't even born in December - to attempt to convert Pagans. So while I respect your right to celebrate Christmas as a Christian holiday, Jesus is actually NOT the reason for the season, and secular celebration of the holiday has plenty of precedence.
shareChristmas is supposed to be about the birth of Christ, but sadly, most everyone, including devoted Christians, spend more time concerned with gifts, parties, dinner, shopping, and having a good time then they actually spend in church worshipping. I see this happening more and more every year. Even some churches don't sing Christmas carols till the week of Christmas. My friends and I have talked about this and we all go to different churches. It's the same all over.
shareChristmas is "celebrated" in some largely non-Christian or secular nations -- Japan, for example.
As jjamison-2 pointed out, it's mostly about gift-giving, parties, dinner, Santa Claus, and getting together with family. The religious aspect is ignored in some nations, and it's highly commercialized.
Muslims do believe in ‘Jesus Christ’ and also believe he's the 'Word of God' and 'The spirit of God' but ironically they don't believe he’s 'The Son of God'. Try to ask a Muslim why the Koran labels Jesus as the word and spirit of God and not Mohammad and their answer would be something like this - 'we don’t know'
shareMaybe it USED to be about Jesus but not anymore...it's now about commercialism.
BTW, the Christians shouldn't have stolen that day. Perhaps you should look up the 'god' Mithra to see what I mean.
Why WE celebrate Christmas is irrelevant; the question is why THEY celebrate Christmas. The criticism of the observation that some Jews celebrate the holiday is silly. The fact is: some Jews DO celebrate it - as do some Muslims, some agnostics, and some atheists - as a seasonal holiday, for a gathering of the family and exchange of gifts. The fact that they choose to ignore or reject the religious basis of Christmas does not alter the fact that they observe it as a family event.
sharelady-dinobug, if you can, read the book, as there is a lot more to the story, including their past relationship before the trip. Anyway, in the book, Betty mentions that the Ayatola announces that the Armenian Christians could not publicly celebrate Christmas due to the war and that it wouldn't be right to have a celebration while Muslims were dying in a war. Iran and Iraq were at war at that time.
Anyway, Betty insists to Moody that they let Mahtab have a Christmas and get a tree. She even wants to let Mahtab stay home form school that day, but he says no.
Then on Christmas morning Moody even decides to let her skip school, but Mahtab fears the schools wrath for missing a day, when it was obvious that she was celebrating Christmas.
So apparently the Armenian and even Iranian Christians do or did celebrate Christmas, but were forbidden to do it publicly at that time, and Betty wanted to have a Christmas party for her daughter. Supposedly Mahtab had even said if she could ask Santa for anything it would be to go to America and see the grandparents.
Finally, the family comes over and celebrates and some family member reads from the Koran the story of Christmas, which from what he reads, states that Jesus was not the son of God.
Like I said, read the book and the sequel. The sequel is not as good, but states what happened next and other cases similar to hers that don't have the same happy endings.