Birthdays, Marriages, and Deaths:  Three Major God-Authored Events

by Tara Nicole (Lang) Chapman

June 2009, Roman calendar

There are three main events in most people's lives (there are often other minor ones like graduations, job promotions, etc. where people are honored, but there are three major God-authored events).  

Three God-authored events:

Birthday--when a person is born

Marriage--when a person marries a spouse

Death--when a person expires/dies

These three events happen on certain dates and are remembered each year by important people in our lives:  birthday anniversaries, wedding anniversaries, and death anniversaries.  They happen annually, hence the name anniversary.  They happen whether we remember them or not and whether we choose to honor that memory or those people, or not.

There are both Godly ways and unGodly ways to observe these event anniversaries.  Some unGodly examples of each:

*Birthdays:  topping a round cake with candles and making a wish (originated with worship of the moon--the lit-up moon); making "wishes" to a false god(s); birthday spanking for good luck; fortune-telling for a child (such as they do in China); pulling on earlobes (a superstition in Argentina and Brazil).

*Weddings:  tiered wedding cakes are rooted in the heathen tradition of piling cakes and having the groom and bride kiss over them to insure fertility; throwing rice is rooted in the heathen superstition that throwing rice at the newlywed couple would insure that they'd never go hungry; some say wedding bands are rooted in the heathen tradition of immortal life, but they could very well simply represent marriage until death.  Cakes are also not in and of themselves wrong; it's the tiered cakes that are rooted in superstition.  

Deaths/funerals:  Cutting oneself; shaving the eyebrows (Deut. 14:1; Lev. 29:28; 21:5; Jer. 16:16).

Some Godly ways to observe these events and/or their anniversaries:

*Birthday ann.:  an age-appropriate gift(s); special meal and/or dessert; special trip

*Wedding/marriage ann.: gift exchange between spouses; special meals and/or desserts; special trip

*Funerals/death ann.:  Grave-marking; remembrance by taking out pictures, reading letters, visiting grave with flowers to keep looking nice; meal of remembrance

These events in and of themselves are not somehow sinful or heathen.  It's the way they are remembered/honored that matters.  The main questions one needs to ask is:

1. Will doing this take part in foolish superstition?

2. Will doing this cause harm to oneself or others?

3. Will doing this violate any other commandment of God?