2016-06-30

  • Celebrating Solstice
  • Rituals for the Season
  • Santa Was a Shaman



  • Happy Rohatsu!
    Celebrate Buddha's enlightenment and
    Birth of the Bab
    Who is the Bab? By Kathleen K. Lehman

    Sukkot
  • Holiday of Affluence By Irving Greenberg
  • Heart of the Sukkah by Rodger Kamenetz
  • What is Sukkkot?


    Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

  • The Chain of Tradition, Reversed
    By Emily Bazelon
  • All Vows Forgiven
    By Lisa Schamess
  • Family Q&A
    By Jane Litman Baha'i
    Buddhism
    Christianity
  • Ascension & Pentecost
  • Christmas
  • Easter
  • Lent & Holy Week
  • St. Patrick's Day
  • Valentine's Day
    Earth Based
    Hinduism
  • Holi
    Islam

  • Ramadan
    Judaism
  • Passover
  • Purim
    Cultural/ Spiritual
  • Kwanzaa
  • New Year's
  • Martin Luther King Day
  • Mother's Day
  • Father's Day
  • Memorial Day
    Other Religions

    Christmas
    A Mormon Christmas
    After I converted to Mormonism, would I have to give up beloved wintertime rituals?
    by Linda Kimball

    Musical selections:
    The Breda Cathedral Boys Choir

    Santa Claus Was a Shaman
    The long history of the man in red who comes bearing gifts
    by John and Caitlin Matthews

    Season's E-Greetings
    Forget the mailman. The Internet is the hottest--and fastest--way to send your holiday cards

    Candlelight
    How our Advent wreath helps us stop time
    by Jean Fitzpatrick

    Come, Lord Jesus
    Advent calm amid Christmas frenzy
    by Christine Whittaker

    Celebrating the Nativity Orthodox-Style
    Western Holiday Traditions in an Eastern Faith
    by Father John Mack

    No Chipmunks, Please, We're Orthodox
    The benefits of an Old Calendar Christmas
    by Philip Kontos

    'I Do in Part Believe It'
    Shakespeare and the spiritual schizophrenia of Christmas
    by Harvey Cox

    Kwanzaa
    Kwanzaa Reflection
    Celebrating the 'first fruits of the harvest'
    by Eric Copage

    The Kwanzaa Karamu
    Maulana (Ron) Karenga's suggested way to conduct a Kwanzaa Karamu, as elaborated by Cedric McCleser
    by Eric Copage

    What You Need on Your Table to Celebrate Kwanzaa
    by Eric Copage

    The Seven Kwanzaa Principles
    by Eric Copage

    Ramadan
    Armoring the Heart
    My first Ramadan fast taught me self-control and empathy
    by Michael Wolfe

    Helping Kids Keep the Fast
    In December, self-denial is a hard sell
    by Imam Khalid Fattah Griggs

    New Year's
    When the Party's Over
    The man who 'discovered' the millennium is ready for a less apocalyptic gig.
    By Arthur Magida

    The Millenium is a Fraud
    People from the Pope on down are using it for their own ends.
    By Andrew Greeley

    A Jewish Agenda for the New Millennium
    It may not be a Jewish event, but there's no escaping the millennium's psychic impact.
    By Rami Shapiro

    Marking the Millennium
    A scholar explains why millennialism is the secret to Western culture's success.
    By Richard Landes

    An Illuminating Millennial Resolution
    Making enlightenment a priority
    by Lama Surya Das

    A New Twist on an Old Problem
    New Year's Eve falls on Friday night, leaving observant Jews to figure out how to observe both
    by Ira Rifkin

    Will God Help You With Your New Year's Resolutions?
    Not unless you 'apply elbow greese to your dreams'
    by T.D. Jakes

    Martin Luther King Jr. Day
    The Limits of 'Turn the Other Cheek'
    Gandhi had it wrong; Martin Luther King had it right
    by Joseph Telushkin

    What Would Jesus Think of King's Protests?
    New scholarship about "turning the other cheek"
    by Marcus Borg

    The Distance that Remains
    Although blacks and Jews have made strides recently, there's a long way to go to fulfill Martin Luther King's vision of unity
    by Rabbi Marc Schneier

    King in His Own Words:

  • On Black Anti-Semites
  • On Loving Your Enemies
  • On the Oppression of Soviet Jews
  • Valentine's Day
    Who Took the 'St.' Away from St. Valentine?
    Except for his association with lovers, this martyr at best had only a shadowy existence on the Catholic calendar
    by Charlotte Allen

    Valentine's Day Quiz

    Giving from the Heart
    This Valentine's Day, give your honey a real gift
    by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

    A Jewish View of Valentine's Day
    Or, how I stopped worrying and learned to love February 14
    by Debra B. Darvick

    Safe Sex Isn't Always Safe for the Soul
    Women and men deserve a relationship based on self-sacrificial love, not one where sex is used as a bargaining chip
    by Deborah Belonick

    Saints Valentine
    Bouquets of love for my Mormon friends
    by Linda Hoffman Kimball

    St. Patrick's Day
    Sighting Irish
    Their distinctive brand of Catholicism is fading from the American scene, but their legacy endures
    by Terry Golway

    St. Patrick's Day Quiz

    St. Patrick's Day Audio Clips

    Holi
    A Day of Play
    Water balloons, squirtguns and plenty of old clothes are central to celebrating Holi, Hinduism's festival of colors
    by Hema Nair

    Purim
    Remembering Haman's Roots
    In the modern world, fighting Amalek--Haman's nation--means fighting for the weak and vulnerable
    by Wendy Amsellem

    A New Stage of Revelation
    Purim, with its reluctant heroine and moral ambiguity, is the perfect holiday for the post-Holocaust world
    by Rabbi Irving Greenberg

    Cutting Loose on Purim
    by Rabbi Sandy Sasso

    Who Wants to Marry the King of Persia?
    On Purim, we remember an earlier version of the recent television special. Only this time, the ending is quite different
    by Andrew Silow-Carroll

    Are You in the Purim Spirit?
    Take this quiz to find out

    Lent & Holy Week
    How Come? On Giving It Up for Lent
    by Kenneth Briggs

    A Path of Death That Leads to Life
    In Jesus' time, the cross was as clear a symbol of execution as today's electric chair. So what does 'taking up the cross' mean?
    by Marcus Borg

    For Latino Catholics, Lent Is a Time to Confront Suffering
    In a world obsessed with avoiding pain, Hispanic spirituality sees, through Jesus' Passion, that it can be redemptive
    by Sister Yolanda Tarango, C.C.V.I.

    How Come? Why do Christians Wear Smudge Marks on Ash Wednesday?
    by Kenneth Briggs

    Journey Into Orthodox Christian Lent
    The Orthodox Church's 'Rite of Forgiveness' is an exhilarating kick-start for a time that will just get harder
    by Frederica Mathewes-Green

    Lenten Loopholes
    In these veggie-friendly times, how can we avoid breaking the spirit of a fast when keeping the letter of the law is so easy?
    by Philip Kontos

    Saying Yes to Soy
    An Orthodox Christian's Guide to Lenten Fasting

    The Second Sunday of Great Lent
    Hymns, readings for the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas

    Orthodox Palm Sunday
    Hymns, readings and icon for the last Sunday in Great Lent

    Holy Week Prayers
    Selected hymns from this week's services

    Holy Week, a Time of Reconciliation
    Christian Holy Week and Jewish Passover could represent a closing of the doors against the public world
    by Martin E. Marty

    Pontius Pilate's Not-So-Good Friday
    Jesus and the Roman governor lived in two different universes. No wonder John's Gospel has him asking, "What is truth?'
    by Ann Wroe

    A Living Icon of Faith
    Each year on Holy Friday, a woman with Down's syndrome lived the tragic mystery of the Passion as most of us never can
    by Father John Breck

    All Jesus, All the Time
    Six nights of religious programming for Holy Week

    Passover
    An Interactive Seder Plate

    A Passover Renaissance
    The seder is the most-observed Jewish ritual of the year, and the ways of doing a seder are always changing
    By J.J. Goldberg

    Dayenu! A Comparison of Passover Haggadah Editions
    Proving that had the Haggadah been written--but translated only once--it would not have been sufficient

    The First Question
    Why is this Easter meal different from last night's seder?
    By Arthur Magida

    A Nation Apart
    The Exodus couldn't occur until the Israelites understood their distinctiveness
    By Wendy Amsellem

    The Matzah Mitzvah
    Why we don't eat unleavened bread all the time
    By Rodger Kamenetz

    Passover Hypocrisy
    Jews should heed the words they mouth at the seder
    by Michael Lerner

    Celebrate Passover: Passover Songs to Treasure
    Are you ready for Passover songs with new twists?

    The Heart of the Holidays
    New children's books for Easter and Passover

    Easter
    Complete Easter Package

    Rising to the Occasion
    Resurrection isn't a revival of somebody once dead back into the same form of life they had before. It's much more
    By Ben Witherington III

    Can I Believe?
    Faith does not necessarily come when called. Only when needed
    By Christine Wicker

    Christianity's Sexiest Saint
    Mary of Magdala was the first to learn that Christ had risen. Feminists now look to her as they hope for other firsts
    By Heidi Schlumpf

    My Baptismal Robe: A Twisted Tale
    My reception into the church at Easter was a solemn event--until the priest put my head into an armhole
    By Meghan Cox Gurdon

    Mother's Day
    Memorial
    Ascension & Pentecost
    Father's Day

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