[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by Freedom

In the modern LC, I don't see as much legality about not celebrating holidays, in terms of trying to make someone feel bad about it, but it is still frowned upon. They schedule trainings/conferences during all of the major holidays, so nowadays they can technically avoid the subject all together by simply getting everyone to attend their trainings. It has the side effect of keeping anyone from celebrating holidays.

From my observation Freedom is correct - there is quite a bit more leniency in the LC when it comes to holidays. I'm sure there are some exceptions here or there. When I entered the Movement back in the mid-70s (Orange County CA) it was strictly forbidden to miss any training meeting to attend a holiday family get-together. Of course the trainings always took place during the holidays so it pretty much kept us away from our families at that time of year anyway. Some exceptions were made for "new ones", but the peer pressure to attend every meeting was enormous.

I have noticed that things have loosened quite a bit over the past 10-15 years. I'm sure that all the FTT attendees are still under strict instructions to never miss a meeting, however the great majority of them have parents in the Local Church, so there's no celebration of holidays anyway.