A few years ago I hid my birthday on Facebook. I found it helpful. I did not enjoy being inundated with “Happy Birthday, the last time I reached out to say hi was your birthday last year, spill how your life has been since then!” DMs. Birthdays are quite personal, and at least for me, they often come with some amount of emotional baggage.
Christian Science can be weird about birthdays, a close family friend refused to celebrate her own until she was well into her sixties, and her CS-parents and-CS spouse had passed. She did insist on celebrating her grandchildren’s birthday’s, but was hit-and-miss on those for her own children (both while growing up, and once they reached adulthood). Anniversaries, particularly wedding anniversaries were fine to celebrate. They are still celebrating the passage of time, but somehow different. I will not speculate.
The Ex-Christian Scientist recently celebrated its 10th anniversary (a few months late), and posted on it’s facebook page:
This past April marked the tenth anniversary of the Ex-Christian Scientist website, it came and went with little fanfare. Christian Scientists do not celebrate birthdays, or anniversaries, and while we no longer practice, this particular milestone slid right past largely unnoticed. Oops there.
People were quick to point out this sentiment did not align with their experience in Christian Science, with commenters noting:
I spent 15 years as an active Christian Scientist, class-taught, and never had anyone tell me not to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries. I left the church in 2003.
and
We always celebrated birthdays, in my 3rd generation CS mother’s household! Birthdays, Hallowe’en, the Easter bunny… Chinese New Year, too!
The Admin for the ExCS Facebook page noted:
Birthdays & anniversaries depend heavily on personal preference, are often not celebrated, see Sentinel articles https://sentinel.christianscience.com/…/birthdays… and https://sentinel.christianscience.com/…/never-record-ages discourage such things, and the former-CS blogger at Emerging Gently talks about it as well https://emergegently.wordpress.com/…/05/29/happy-birthday/, see also the MBE library’s Q&A on the topic https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/…/did-mary-baker…/
As with many things, the Christian Science experience with birthdays, anniversaries, and other holidays varies. Several former-CS bloggers have discussed the topic, and the ExCS site has articles that touch on it as well. The CS and former-CS experience is varied as the people who joined, and left. This might be one of the few acceptable situations to pull out the worn out line “not all Christian Scientists!”
ExCS Articles / Former-CS Bloggers on the topic of Celebrations, Holidays, and Birthdays
- https://exchristianscience.com/2022/04/17/we-celebrate-because-celebrations-are-fun/
- https://exchristianscience.com/2018/12/23/santa-claus-isnt-coming-to-town/
- https://exchristianscience.com/2019/04/21/easter-eggs-confound-me/
- https://exchristianscience.com/2017/10/31/happy-halloween/
- https://emergegently.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/happy-birthday/
CS Articles About Birthdays, Recording Ages, etc.
- https://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/1965/1/67-1/never-record-ages
- https://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/1906/7/8-47/birthdays-convey-suggestions-of-ill
- https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/did-mary-baker-eddy-celebrate-birthdays/
- https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2008/0310/p18s01-hfcs.html
Post by An Infrequent Contributor, via email
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