What to expect on holidays?
Our UU Sources which Inform and Shape our Holidays
- Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
- Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
- Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
- Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
- Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
- Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
Traditional Holidays
Unitarian Universalism includes aspects of many of the world's religions. Holidays from various religions are celebrated together in Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations. Most Unitarian Universalist congregations celebrate the Christian holidays Christmas and Easter, the Jewish holidays Passover and Yom Kippur, and the Pagan Winter Solstice, among other holidays.
In addition to these traditional religious holidays, many UU congregations also honor secular holidays including Earth Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Mother's Day and Father's Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. While these are not traditionally spiritual holidays, Unitarian Universalism finds spiritual meaning and affinity with our Principles in the ideas behind these and other secular holidays.
Unique Holidays
There are two holidays that many Unitarian Universalist congregations celebrate that are unique to our faith: Water Communion and Flower Communion. Both holidays are ceremonies that celebrate our Unitarian Universalist community and the importance of each individual's unique contributions to that community. Additionally, other unique communion services are celebrated in many Unitarian Universalist congregations. Though derived from Christian communion rituals, which in turn derive from the Jewish Passover rituals, Unitarian Universalist communions often celebrate our connection to the Earth through food and, hence, Emerson also celebrates Bread Communion.
- Water Communion - September, generally the first Sunday following Labor Day weekend;
- Bread Communion - Fall, generally the Sunday before or the Sunday of Thanksgiving;
- Flower communion - Spring, generally the Sunday before or the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.
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