Yes in the mormon faith we do celebrate Christmas, and Easter. We also celebrate some important dates in church history. And involving the other question we do practice fasting, we fast as a group on the first sunday of each month and if a special circumstance comes up we also fast. We fast to show our faith and build a stronger testimony.

What sre the other important dates of church history and why is it on Sunday that you fast other than other days of the week, and what would be the special circumstances that would come up. And you said you fast to show your faith...Christ told his disciples not to show people that they were fasting, as not to fall into pride? In what way do you build a stronger testimony by fasting?

hey I would say yes. where I am from we have a holiday on the 24 of july. this is a celebration of when the saints first came and settled here

When are Christmas and Easter celebrated? Is it the same as the other Churches? If so, why, if the other Churches are misguided, do you celebrate with them. Because both Christmas and Easter were not celebrated in the early Church until the period which you call "Apostasy"?????

Celebrating holidays for my family is not a religious practice. It is a cultural/social practice. I see no harm in celebrating the fact that Christ was born, or that he was resurrected. On the other hand, it wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't celebrate them at all, either. My family also celebrates birthdays, anniversaries, mother's day and father's day, New Year's, Halloween, 4th of July, 24th of July, Thanksgiving, memorial day, labor day, Valentine's day, St. Patrick's day, and others.

As to why we celebrate them when the other "misguided churches" do, I think you're getting a little bit nit picky. Do you know the exact day Christ was born? I highly doubt it was December 25th. However, that seems as good a date as any to celebrate it. You got a good reason to celebrate Easter on another day? I don't think God much cares which day we celebrate it.

Other important dates are April 6th (anniversary of the day the church was legally set up) and May 15th (anniversary of the resoration of the Aaronic priesthood) and July 24th (Anniversary of the day the pioneers entered the Salt Lake valley).

-That's fine, but I wasn't asking about what your family practices personally, I was asking in general about Mormon beliefs. I'm sure there are some non-Mormon Christians who celebrate Christmas at nightclubs for example, but that has nothing to do with real Christian beliefs concerning Christmas.

-I did not mean that you should not celebrate with the other churches, but I wonder why? True, nobody knows the exact date of Christ's Birth, that's why I almost assumed that Mormon doctrines would seperate the faithful from the Apostates by having a special feastal calandar to follow instead of NO calander at all!
As for Easter, yes I do have a good reason to celebrate it on a different day (rather than the Roman Catholic calendar technique used here in North America), it is a more precise technique of calculating the feast, which was used since Easter (or the feast of the Resurrection) was celebrated. If you are interested I can explain it, no problem.

Well you have said earlier that you knew Church history.If you did you would realize that fasting dosen't always happen on Sundays. As a matter of fact the monthly fast day wasn't on Sunday in the 1800's. At the begining of The Church it was on Tuesday. It dosen't matter what day that you fast truly.Only that fasting shows your willingness to commit yourselve to GOD over all things and this helps you to bare witness to yourselve of your testimony.Members of The Church are taught that when they are fasting they are not to brag about lest that they should be lifted up in pride and show false commitment to GOD,and that they were only doing it for the praise pf the world.

No, the Early Christian Church had a fasting calendar, which is still in use today by Orthodox Churches around the world. If the fasting days are added up, it comes out to be that just over half of the 365 days of the year are fasting days. The early Christians fasted by not eating until noon, and refraining from meat & dairy products as well as sex (with spouses ofcourse!) and bad relations with people. That really limited their diets and put pressure on their will power.
These traditions are also preserved to this day. What are the fasting traditions in your church, other than it is done on the first Sunday of the month?

Fasting is not just to show your commitment to God because God does not NEED fasting. But it is the one who truly fasts and prays who Satan attacks more than others. For this God will send His aid and is pleased with the struggling believer. And true, it is not something to be praised for. Fasting is the first step to freeing one's self from the passions. When dealing with all of man's passions, the body is a simple thing to conquer than let's say the mind. If one cannot control his stomach and sexual desire, how can he free himself from evil thoughts?
You cannot truly fast and criticize others for not fasting, that is the same as "showing-off" your fasting to others. Being praised for fasting is praise from Satan, and taking pride in fasting ruins the fast.
Who are the Saints really? Saints are those who have freed themselves from Passions. It is not an easy thing to do, it takes patience and resistance to temptation. Was Christ Himself not tempted when he fasted? It is this kind of a Spiritual struggle that frightens Satan. He loses control over us when we are focusing only on God, therefore he tries to distract us by putting evil thoughts in our minds and awakening our desires.

May God have mercy on us.

Arsenios.

Why don't you just admit that Arsenios knows what he's talking about?

I'm looking for charts to a few holiday tunes that we can throw in to our some of our shows. I don't really have time to sit down and figure them out by myself, so I was hoping someone could help me by pointing me in the right direction of some that are already done.
Please respond with links, or even email me the charts themselves to ckepner@chek.com.
Thanks a lot in advance!