This is interesting from Rolf Furuli My Beloved Religion on the subject of birthdays
CELEBRATING BIRTHDAYS
Birthdays are not celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Awake! of July 8, 1976, pages 27 and 28 shows the reason for this:
Actually, the Bible mentions birthday celebrations only in the cases of Egypt’s Pharaoh during the days of Joseph and Herod Antipas of the first century C.E. (
Gen. 40:20; Matt. 14:6-11) These celebrations, however, appear in an unfavorable light, for both were held by persons who did not worship Jehovah. Professor Margoliouth further observes: “The birthday celebrations in the Herodian family . . . were, no doubt, an imitation of Græco-Roman customs of the time.”
Interestingly, the same encyclopedia says of the ancient Greeks and Romans: “The giving of presents on particular occasions was often dictated by superstitious fears, as in the case of birthday-gifts?’ The article notes that the practice of giving these gifts “was formerly accounted to possess a magic virtue.”
It further explains that the special purpose of birthday celebrations in ancient Greece “was to invoke the aid of the Good Demon (agathos daimon) at a time when—on the border-line of two periods—evil spirits were especially prone to extend their influence.”
In view of the pagan origin of many birthday customs and the fact that the only Scriptural accounts of birthday celebrations are in connection with false worshipers, neither the ancient Jews nor Christians early in the Common Era celebrated birthdays. Concerning the latter, historian Augustus Neander writes: “The notion of a birthday festival was far from the ideas of the Christians of this period in general.” At about the middle of the third century C.E., Origen remarked in his commentary on
Matthew, chapter 14: “Someone of those before us has observed what is written in Genesis about the birthday of Pharaoh, and has told that the worthless man who loves things connected with birth keeps birthday festivals; and we, taking this suggestion from him, find in no Scripture that a birthday was kept by a righteous man.”
During the fourth century C.E. however, something happened to change matters. What? Professed Christians began celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on the false date of December 25. The book Curiosities of Popular Customs points out: “With the celebration of Christ’s Nativity returned the celebration of the nativities of ordinary mortals.”
In view of the historical data above, it seems clear that birthdays in ancient Greece and Rome had a pagan origin, and there are also some instances where magic was connected with birthday celebrations. It appears that the first Christians did not celebrate birthdays, and Origen spoke negatively about birthdays some two hundred years later. But persons today do not view birthdays as having a bad (pagan) origin or believe that real magic in any form is connected with birthday celebrations. But the arguments from Awake! quoted above presents evidence that gives some substance to the view of Jehovah’s Witnesses that birthdays should not be celebrated.
However, the arguments against birthday celebrations are not conclusive, and both in the 19th century in the days of C.T. Russell, and in the 1920s, in the days of J.F. Rutherford, birthdays were celebrated by the Bible Students. I am not arguing in favor of celebrating birthdays. Rather, the focus of my discussion is the situation where a Witness finds that the arguments against celebrating birthdays are inconclusive, and so he starts to celebrate birthdays in the same way he celebrates wedding anniversaries. In such cases, is the Witness liable for disfellowshipping in the same way as one celebrating false religious holidays by taking part in idolatrous customs?
Suppose that a Witness who has several children argues in the following way: “The fact that birthdays were celebrated by pagans and not by the first Christians does not mean that Christians today must refrain from birthday celebrations. I have not found any material that conclusively shows that birthday celebrations are wrong for Christians. The way birthdays are celebrated today does not seem to violate any biblical principles. Friends of the one whose birthday it is are being invited in the same way friends are invited to a wedding anniversary party. They bring gifts, they eat good food, and everyone has a good time exactly as is done at a wedding anniversary party. I do not even think that the song “Happy birthday to you” gives improper honor to the one having the birthday, any more than songs to the bridal couple at a wedding or at their wedding anniversary, gives improper honor to them. In fact, some couples actually have a dedicated song commemorating their wedding and that is played or sung at their anniversary party—they even call it, “our song”. There is also cake at a birthday party, just like the cake at a wedding anniversary party. Therefore, I don’t see any substantive difference between a birthday celebration and an anniversary celebration. Because of this, I will let my children celebrate their birthdays.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses have some good arguments against birthday celebration, but these are not exactly ironclad arguments. The arguments of the brother in favor of birthday celebrations also appear to have some merit, especially with the backdrop of the aforementioned 2000 Awake! article mitigating how much weight the origins of certain customs actually have in connection with their modern-day counterparts. However, the standpoint of Jehovah’s Witnesses is that birthdays should not be celebrated, and in view of this, the words of Paul, about not becoming a stumbling block to fellow Christians, that I quoted above would strongly weigh against birthday celebrations by the brother. If he did that, unrest could result in the congregation. And so the principle in Romans 12:18, “If possible, as long as it depends on you, be peaceable with all men.” should be applied.
But what would happen if the brother continues with his plan and arranges birthday celebrations for his children? He has not violated any biblical principle or biblical law, and his arguments cannot be countered by the Bible or by history. However, his actions may cause some unrest in the congregation.
But from a biblical point of view, no law given by Jehovah is violated by a person who lets his children celebrate birthdays. And the person is absolutely not guilty of “celebrating a false religious holiday.” So, if the elders of the congregation disfellowship the brother, they are violating several biblical principles.
CONCLUSION
The discussion has shown that “celebrating religious holidays” is not, in itself, a disfellowshipping offense, according to the Bible. But the Governing Body has made this a disfellowshipping offense.
The word “celebrating” is subjective and ambiguous, and different elders will apply it differently in relation to different holidays. The basic point in my discussion is that only when actions performed in connection with a holiday are idolatrous in nature can judicial action rightly be taken and the person be disfellowshipped because of idolatry, according to 1 Corinthians 6:9is a disfellowshipping offense.
I also discussed birthday celebrations and showed that Jehovah1s Witnesses have some noteworthy arguments against birthday celebrations, but these are not ironclad. This means that if a brother starts celebrating birthdays because he says that there are no clear biblical reasons against it, his arguments also have some validity.
However, I can reasonably assume that if the brother continues celebrating birthdays, and it becomes known and causes some unrest in the congregation, he will be disfellowshipped under the pretext of “causing divisions.” But since “causing divisions” is scripturally limited in its application and does not include these kinds of divisions, disfellowshipping on these grounds is an invention of the Governing Body and has no basis in the Bible.