Civil "communion" for 8 year old girl

One eyed Jack

minikin wrote: »

Must get one of those 'sweeping generalisation brushes' from Lidl.

• Some Catholics* believe in a God - a minority.
• A tiny subset (one fella in the west who doesn't like Stephen Fry) of those Catholics* may believe blasphemy is a crime.
• I find it hard to believe any Catholics* believe apostasy is a crime, let alone actually recognise it as 'a thing'.
• The Catholic hierarchy** is sexist - undoubtedly.
• The Catholic hierarchy** is homophobic - seriously???
  Yeah, they're a total shower of lgbt-hating straight folks, no doubt about that whatsover at all at all Ted, nothing to hide here, those closets in every church?? oh they're confession boxes, that's all ...

*Catholics = those baptised as such when they were tiny babies without the muscle mass to resist involuntary holy watering. Only a small minority are actually practising/believing Catholics.

**Catholic Hierarchy does not equate to Catholics*!

So, given that the average Joe Catholic is as above - do you really believe you have more in common with 'Muslims'***?

Muslims*** = Qualifying this because realistically I know sweet f.a. about them and their head of the Muslim church on earth.

This has to be one of the strangest posts I've read on boards in a while.

smacl isn't that wide of the mark in terms of making an ideological comparison between Islam and Roman Catholicism. He's bang on in that a lot of ways Irish Catholic culture wouldn't be that dissimilar to Islamic Irish culture, and particularly in terms of their attitudes towards education and any excuse for a good knees-up!

So to pull a poster up and accuse them of making sweeping generalisations, then go on to admit you understand or know SFA about Muslims, really invalidates your efforts to contradict smacl's point (like I said, I got it, not that wide of the mark at all).

Given your impression of the average Joe Catholic, I'd say you were well wide of the mark, and particularly so when smacl wasn't making the point that he, as an atheist, had anything in common with Joe Catholic at all.

It was drunkmonkey suggested that smacl would have more in common with Irish Catholics than Muslims, which is grand if you're assuming that there are no such people as Irish Muslims. I suppose if you didn't know any better you'd be given to thinking that. There were Irish Muslims in Ireland when I was making my Communion, it's not as though they appeared out of thin air!

daheff

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Communion is just one type of coming of age ceremony. Anyone could see that

Whats the non-religious version of this coming of age ceremony?

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

That's the social aspect to it. Communion is a family day out and an occasion.

a religious occasion. Which the OP wants to emulate in a non religious manner...which is quite contradictory...wants the occasion without the religion. Seems to me that they want to emulate the religion while not being religious....:eek:

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

The age was selected because at that age children can tell right from wrong. Confirmation is the marking of the end of childhood and the transition to adulthood and the 21st is the traditional start of adulthood.

Really? so when I was making mine, it was done in first class....now its done in second class. Are children nowadays not able to tell right from wrong until they are older?

El_Duderino 09

daheff wrote: »

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Communion is just one type of coming of age ceremony. Anyone could see that

Whats the non-religious version of this coming of age ceremony?

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

That's the social aspect to it. Communion is a family day out and an occasion.

a religious occasion. Which the OP wants to emulate in a non religious manner...which is quite contradictory...wants the occasion without the religion. Seems to me that they want to emulate the religion while not being religious....:eek:

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

The age was selected because at that age children can tell right from wrong. Confirmation is the marking of the end of childhood and the transition to adulthood and the 21st is the traditional start of adulthood.

Really? so when I was making mine, it was done in first class....now its done in second class. Are children nowadays not able to tell right from wrong until they are older?

Such a basic grasp of human development and culture.

There is no definitive age of reason or distinguishing right from wrong. So any point in time could be picked to celebrate the recent development in the child. In our culture we pick multiple points of development as I pointed out earlier. Other cultures pick other points in development.

The religious have had the monopoly on some of these ceremonies in Irish culture but that doesn't mean they invented them or own them. And it certainly doesn't mean the religious have to be involved in them.

The point of a coming of age ceremony is simply to celebrate the development of the child and show the child that they will have a new set of expectations on them in the future. Simples. They help draw a line under the more childish aspects of their development and focus on the future which holds more responsibility and a different role in the community/family.

They're probably not strictly necessary but they could be very useful in helping a child develop as part of a community.

It's sad that some people think the religious need to be involved in these ceremonies. I suppose it shows the limited thinking that religious are famous for instilling.

smacl

One eyed Jack wrote: »

It was drunkmonkey suggested that smacl would have more in common with Irish Catholics than Muslims, which is grand if you're assuming that there are no such people as Irish Muslims.

Or if you buy minikin's rather unusual theory that most Irish Catholics are in fact also atheist

Wonder whether Irish Muslims actually believe in Allah or if they're all just putting it on for show too. There are no doubt people of various religions who doubt the bona fides of the underlying mythology, and it would be fascinating to know what type of percentage we're talking about. No idea if such a study has ever been carried out. Great idea for the next census when you think about it

Q1. What is your religion

- Catholic
- Protestant
- Muslim
- Hindu
- Other
- None

Q2. Do you believe in God

- Yes
- No

drunkmonkey

I meant heritage, race and culture. Catholics and atheists are pretty much cut from the same cloth.

magicbastarder

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Catholics and atheists are pretty much cut from the same cloth.

indeed; we actually share over 90% of our DNA!

dr.fuzzenstein

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

All catholic ceremonies are based on previous pagan or Jewish celebrations​, so I wouldn't see a secular one as being any way hypocritical.

That is pretty much end discussion right there.
All the "waaaa, you're doing something religious" can stfu right there.
OP have a fun day and the fact that it rubs up some people the wrong way should make it even better.
Being an atheist doesn't have to mean sitting in a dark corner brooding over the non existence of god all day.

minikin

smacl wrote: »

Well, they're Catholics because that's how they choose to identify themselves, freedom of religious identification and all that. If they don't believe in God they are by definition atheists too. While many are very laissez-faire in their adherence to church dogma, it is one hell of a jump to suppose that because of this the majority are atheist. Don't get me wrong, I'd imagine a significant proportion of Irish Catholics don't believe in God, but it is a baseless assertion to categorically state they make up the majority without making any effort to quantify it.

"it is one hell of a jump to suppose that because of this the majority are atheist."
- You are the one that made that particular leap of faith, as it were... I didn't label them as atheists, you did!

"it is a baseless assertion to categorically state they make up the majority without making any effort to quantify it."
It's not baseless, it's verifiable fact... look at church attendances... maybe people are teleporting into the churches because they're sure as 'hell' not going in through the front door.

You seem to be taking Catholicism a lot more seriously than those you accuse of being Catholics!

Religion is like a fart (it comes from a place that gives some people pleasure)... ignore it and it'll go away or some anti-theists keep obsessing about its existence thereby 'making a bigger stink' and embarrass yourself and everyone around you.

daheff

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

There is no definitive age of reason or distinguishing right from wrong. So any point in time could be picked to celebrate the recent development in the child. In our culture we pick multiple points of development as I pointed out earlier. Other cultures pick other points in development.

I think you are missing the point a bit here. The OP is looking to emulate a religious ceremony minus the religion. Our culture picks this point in development because the religion picks this point.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

The religious have had the monopoly on some of these ceremonies in Irish culture but that doesn't mean they invented them or own them. And it certainly doesn't mean the religious have to be involved in them.

They have a monopoly because its their ceremony. Communion = religious ceremony. It might be dressing up to hide it being a coming of age or whatever you are having yourself...but its a religious ceremony.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

The point of a coming of age ceremony is simply to celebrate the development of the child and show the child that they will have a new set of expectations on them in the future. Simples. They help draw a line under the more childish aspects of their development and focus on the future which holds more responsibility and a different role in the community/family.

SO if you dont need to have religion involved, why try to mimic it? Why not have it when the child is 4 or 5 or 10?? The OPs point is they want to have a 'civil communion' -hence trying to mimic a religious ceremony.(without the religion)


If the OP doesn't want the child to miss out on the communion...then let them have communion. If the OP doesn't want the child to miss out on a party or a coming of age ceremony (or whatever) then have that...but don't try to dress it up as a nonreligious communion....there is no such thing.

smacl

minikin wrote: »

"it is one hell of a jump to suppose that because of this the majority are atheist."
- You are the one that made that particular leap of faith, as it were... I didn't label them as atheists, you did!

Maybe look up atheist in the dictionary so, it is a simply defined as someone who doesn't believe in a God or gods. No more, no less. There's no leap of faith involved in describing someone who does not believe in God as an atheist.

"it is a baseless assertion to categorically state they make up the majority without making any effort to quantify it."
It's not baseless, it's verifiable fact... look at church attendances... maybe people are teleporting into the churches because they're sure as 'hell' not going in through the front door.

So if someone describes themselves as Catholic but does not attend church regularly, you imply that person categorically does not believe in God. If they don't believe in God, why exactly do they call themselves Catholic?

You seem to be taking Catholicism a lot more seriously than those you accuse of being Catholics!

Religion is like a fart (it comes from a place that gives some people pleasure)... ignore it and it'll go away or some anti-theists keep obsessing about its existence thereby 'making a bigger stink' and embarrass yourself and everyone around you.

I'm not accusing anyone of being anything, 78% of the population self identified as Catholics in the last poll. Simple as. You're putting forward unproven assertions as categorical truth and then having a moan about religion. Ironic, no?

minikin

Ah smacl, you're more fundamentalist than any Catholic in Ireland today
Stop taking it so seriously!!

"Maybe look up atheist in the dictionary so, it is a simply defined as someone who doesn't believe in a God or gods. No more, no less. There's no leap of faith involved in describing someone who does not believe in God as an atheist."
– I pushed aside your argument already... you're still debating yourself... look up 'strawman' in the dictionary... a good catholic dictionary, mind...

"So if someone describes themselves as Catholic but does not attend church regularly, you imply that person categorically does not believe in God. If they don't believe in God, why exactly do they call themselves Catholic?"
– By definition: people who do not attend an institution, the membership of which requires weekly attendance as part of it's fundamental rules, are not functioning members of that institute. This is plain as day.

Being a Catholic / Catholic* does not equate to believing in God... you can believe in God and not be a Catholic / Catholic*
Similarly you can be a Catholic* and not believe in God as proscribed by the Catholic Hierarchy... as is obvious from the massive non-attendance and adherence to Catholic doctrine.

"78%" of Catholics* in the Republic of Ireland did not self-declare themselves as Catholics in the most recent census by the way!!!

I think we're on the same 'side' here - I'm just saying not to take it all so seriously!

El_Duderino 09

daheff wrote: »

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

There is no definitive age of reason or distinguishing right from wrong. So any point in time could be picked to celebrate the recent development in the child. In our culture we pick multiple points of development as I pointed out earlier. Other cultures pick other points in development.

I think you are missing the point a bit here. The OP is looking to emulate a religious ceremony minus the religion. Our culture picks this point in development because the religion picks this point.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

The religious have had the monopoly on some of these ceremonies in Irish culture but that doesn't mean they invented them or own them. And it certainly doesn't mean the religious have to be involved in them.

They have a monopoly because its their ceremony. Communion = religious ceremony. It might be dressing up to hide it being a coming of age or whatever you are having yourself...but its a religious ceremony.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

The point of a coming of age ceremony is simply to celebrate the development of the child and show the child that they will have a new set of expectations on them in the future. Simples. They help draw a line under the more childish aspects of their development and focus on the future which holds more responsibility and a different role in the community/family.

SO if you dont need to have religion involved, why try to mimic it? Why not have it when the child is 4 or 5 or 10?? The OPs point is they want to have a 'civil communion' -hence trying to mimic a religious ceremony.(without the religion)


If the OP doesn't want the child to miss out on the communion...then let them have communion. If the OP doesn't want the child to miss out on a party or a coming of age ceremony (or whatever) then have that...but don't try to dress it up as a nonreligious communion....there is no such thing.

My understanding is that the OP is looking for a celebration in lieu of communion because all the other children will be doing communion on one day. Anyone could have one of these ceremonies at any age, but all the other children will have a ceremony on kind day and the OP doesn't want their child to be the only one without a coming of age ceremony on that day. Simple stuff really.

I don't suppose the OP will dress their child for communion (girls tend to wear mini wedding dresses for religious ceremonies of this type which is weird in my opinion).

Just for clarity OP, are you looking for a secular ceremony instead of communion of are you trying to imitate communion specifically?

smacl

minikin wrote: »

I'm just saying not to take it all so seriously!

Difficult to take your arguments seriously for sure, they're nonsense. You've got Catholics who don't believe in God but aren't atheists, Catholics who don't go to church therefore don't believe in God, and Catholics who don't abide by the rules of their church and therefore aren't really Catholics at all. At the same time you seem to miraculously know what all these Catholics do and don't believe. And you then call me a fundamentalist because in the absence of a sensible argument might as well attack the poster. :rolleyes:

smacl

Apropos of the opening post; http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/it-s-holy-communion-week-so-i-am-taking-my-eight-year-old-son-out-of-school-1.3075582

minikin

Difficult to take your arguments seriously for sure, they're nonsense. You've got Catholics who don't believe in God but aren't atheists, Catholics who don't go to church therefore don't believe in God, and Catholics who don't abide by the rules of their church and therefore aren't really Catholics at all. At the same time you seem to miraculously know what all these Catholics do and don't believe. And you then call me a fundamentalist because in the absence of a sensible argument might as well attack the poster.

"then call me a fundamentalist because in the absence of a sensible argument"
– at least you're self aware.

Chill out, would ya... not everything is as black and white as, your statements and arguments suggest, you believe.

mar12345

Hi,

I am sorry that my wording has caused so much upset. In my post I called our ceremony a civil "communion" so people could relate to the concept of a child ceremony marking their reaching the age of reason.

I have no intention of emulating a religious ceremony. There will be no little white dress, no big amounts of cash, no eucharist (although there will be wine!). Just a nice gathering of family and friends that would mean the world to a little kid.

I don't understand Communion at all. But I understand why it would be important to some people to celebrate it. It doesn't bother me. I don't judge it. It doesn't affect me. So I am surprised that some would have such a strong reaction to my private ceremony. I'm not trying to impose it on anyone. I posted this in the "Atheism and Agnosticism" section so as to get some useful suggestions from like-minded people, and I wasn't expecting such unhelpful and decidedly unchristian comments from some.

To those of you that actually contributed or posted in support of our decision, thanks a mill, it was much appreciated!

magicbastarder

heh, i bet you didn't expect the spanish inquisition!

One eyed Jack

smacl wrote: »

Apropos of the opening post; http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/it-s-holy-communion-week-so-i-am-taking-my-eight-year-old-son-out-of-school-1.3075582

Peter Mulryan is a writer and distiller.

A distiller of what exactly, one has to ask, given statements like this -

My eight-year-old son won’t be in school this week. He’ll be with his mother and me in Spain, on a holiday paid for by his grandmother.

Since Christmas he’s grown to know what apartheid feels like

Yes, we did think of Educate Together, but we live in rural Ireland so are an hour from middle class stuff like Educate Together, Starbucks and tinned artichoke hearts.

In this marriage of convenience, Ireland is the absentee cheque book father to the Catholic Church’s over-protective mother.

Parents though are not without fault. Not those of faith who actually bring their children to mass every Sunday. It’s the others to whom First Holy Communion is less Christian, more Christian Dior.

I know this bouncy castle brigade grates with many believers, and I empathise. But that’s what happens when you run a drift net through our education system. You can get quality or you can get quantity. Never both.

There's nobody left to feel sorry for him the way he's taken a swipe at every section of Irish society! :pac:

smacl

mar12345 wrote: »

I wasn't expecting such unhelpful and decidedly unchristian comments from some.

To be fair, we're not best known for our Christianity in these parts :P

Anyhoo, hope your child, yourself and your family and friends all have a fantastic day of it and the decent BBQ worthy weather holds up for you.

smacl

One eyed Jack wrote: »

There's nobody left to feel sorry for him the way he's taken a swipe at every section of Irish society! :pac:

The IT are certainly flailing around somewhat with religion at the moment, with this type of stuff on the one hand and total nut jobs like Breda O'Brien as a regular columnist on the other.

magicbastarder

i have it on good authority that the one good thing about the copy john waters used to turn in was that it didn't need to be subbed for spelling or grammatical errors.

Mr_A

magicbastarder wrote: »

heh, i bet you didn't expect the spanish inquisition!

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

looksee

mar12345 wrote: »

Hi,

I am sorry that my wording has caused so much upset. In my post I called our ceremony a civil "communion" so people could relate to the concept of a child ceremony marking their reaching the age of reason.

I have no intention of emulating a religious ceremony. There will be no little white dress, no big amounts of cash, no eucharist (although there will be wine!). Just a nice gathering of family and friends that would mean the world to a little kid.

I don't understand Communion at all. But I understand why it would be important to some people to celebrate it. It doesn't bother me. I don't judge it. It doesn't affect me. So I am surprised that some would have such a strong reaction to my private ceremony. I'm not trying to impose it on anyone. I posted this in the "Atheism and Agnosticism" section so as to get some useful suggestions from like-minded people, and I wasn't expecting such unhelpful and decidedly unchristian comments from some.

To those of you that actually contributed or posted in support of our decision, thanks a mill, it was much appreciated!

Mod Hi mar12345, just a note to say that there was no problem with your wording, but inevitably when you post in a forum like this you are going to get all kinds of responses, and in fairness your desire for responses from like-minded people - ie athiests - was going to get both sides of the situation. Since it is something that very few people do - making a non-religious ceremony to substitute for first communion - there were not likely to be many ideas and the whole thing was more likely to be discussed in general terms. It did result in a good discussion, even though the responses were generally doubtful about the idea. Good luck with your day and I hope you all have a good family occasion.

daheff

mar12345 wrote: »

Hi,

I have no intention of emulating a religious ceremony. There will be no little white dress, no big amounts of cash, no eucharist (although there will be wine!). Just a nice gathering of family and friends that would mean the world to a little kid.

So can you explain (for my benefit at least) how you see this as being then different to any other family gathering (say a birthday party)?


Whatever you do I hope you & your kid have a really enjoyable and great day.

infogiver

mar12345 wrote: »

Hi,

I am sorry that my wording has caused so much upset. In my post I called our ceremony a civil "communion" so people could relate to the concept of a child ceremony marking their reaching the age of reason.

I have no intention of emulating a religious ceremony. There will be no little white dress, no big amounts of cash, no eucharist (although there will be wine!). Just a nice gathering of family and friends that would mean the world to a little kid.

I don't understand Communion at all. But I understand why it would be important to some people to celebrate it. It doesn't bother me. I don't judge it. It doesn't affect me. So I am surprised that some would have such a strong reaction to my private ceremony. I'm not trying to impose it on anyone. I posted this in the "Atheism and Agnosticism" section so as to get some useful suggestions from like-minded people, and I wasn't expecting such unhelpful and decidedly unchristian comments from some.

To those of you that actually contributed or posted in support of our decision, thanks a mill, it was much appreciated!

There's a "point" to most "ceremonies".
You were awarded a medal for long service.
You got married.
You accepted your degree.
I'm struggling to think of a point for your ceremony.
I'm afraid it just appears that you felt your daughter was going to feel left out on the big day for her classmates and you're trying to have a Holy Communion without the Holy Communion "bit". ( The Holy Communion is the "point").
If I were you I would clear off to FOTA Wildlife or something for the day and say as little as possible about the communion because I would be bothered that there was going to be confusion for your daughter at school both in the days before and after the Communion day.
Edited to add:
Looking again at your OP I'm thinking, did you mean that as some choose a civil marriage as opposed to a religious wedding, that you would like a civil communion?

El_Duderino 09

infogiver wrote: »

There's a "point" to most "ceremonies".
You were awarded a medal for long service.
You got married.
You accepted your degree.
I'm struggling to think of a point for your ceremony.
I'm afraid it just appears that you felt your daughter was going to feel left out on the big day for her classmates and you're trying to have a Holy Communion without the Holy Communion "bit". ( The Holy Communion is the "point").
If I were you I would clear off to FOTA Wildlife or something for the day and say as little as possible about the communion because I would be bothered that there was going to be confusion for your daughter at school both in the days before and after the Communion day.

What a boring and limited take on culture, community and child development. Communion is just one expression of a coming of age celebration. I can't imagine being so unimaginative as to he unable to see the point of the ceremony beyond the narrow religious meaning.

But to keep it in narrow religious terms, communion is about initiating a child into the fold as they are now developed enough to receive the holy sacrament of communion and all that guff. They weer a small child who was too immature for communion and now they're growing into a different position in their church . So it would be exactly the same for any other coming of age ceremony.

Acknowledging and celebrating the child's development. If anyone can't see the point of doing that, but dies see the value in communion, then I font know what up tell them

smacl

infogiver wrote: »

I'm struggling to think of a point for your ceremony.

A family marking a day to let their little girl know she is hugely important and greatly loved at a time when other families are having celebrations for their kids is no bad thing and doesn't need any point beyond that. Great thing about not being a Catholic is the freedom to do it whenever and however it suits rather than getting shoe-horned into what appears from an outside perspective to be a highly commercial and competitive event that may well be pointless to the child. Whatever the intended point, the central theme seems very much about greed and one-upmanship.

infogiver

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

What a boring and limited take on culture, community and child development. Communion is just one expression of a coming of age celebration. I can't imagine being so unimaginative as to he unable to see the point of the ceremony beyond the narrow religious meaning.

But to keep it in narrow religious terms, communion is about initiating a child into the fold as they are now developed enough to receive the holy sacrament of communion and all that guff. They weer a small child who was too immature for communion and now they're growing into a different position in their church . So it would be exactly the same for any other coming of age ceremony.

Acknowledging and celebrating the child's development. If anyone can't see the point of doing that, but dies see the value in communion, then I font know what up tell them

But if you can't explain the point of a ceremony then there's no point in having a ceremony, and it's not a ceremony it's a family party.
So just have a family summer party.
For no other reason then that it's the summer.
Making the "not holy communicant" child the focus of the party, pointlessly, will just end up in total confusion.
The other children are having a party to celebrate First Eucharist.
Your not a Catholic.
So ?
Your not a Jew either.
Must she have a party and a "ceremony" to compensate for no Bar Mitsvah too?
This is all so Irish.
Do you think the Muslim children in her class will be having to a have a ceremony and a party to compensate them?
Don't be insane.
8 year olds are well able to cope with reality.
"Some of the other children in your class are taking part in a religious ceremony. This is a big celebration for for them and we hope they have a lovely time.
Would you like to go to the Zoo on Saturday and we might go to MacDonalds on the way home?".

Walter H Price

I've seen one or two friends struggle with this with their kids , feeling left out one of the lads eventually just gave in and got the little lad baptized so he could make it it and not be different (very important when your 8).

The best I've heard so far was , a girl in work , for her kids they celebrated the end of junior an senior primary school , ties in nicely given its 2nd and 6th class so literally half way through and the end of Primary ... they didn't do a mock communion however they booked Disney land Paris for the week coming up to the communion to skip out on all the prep and chat and all that stuff, small family so the grandparents, aunt and uncle and friends all chucked her a few quid in a congrats card for her big trip , she spent ages picking what princess dress she was going to get and they booked her some special princess makeover package thing ... did the same for her finishing primary except they went to Harry Potter World (confo) last year , did Disney again for the young lads (communion) and next year he has chosen going over to Liverpool for the weekend instead for a football match ,stadium tour all that stuff instead, i think we'll be doing exactly the same (except not Liverpool , Aston Villa Paul McGrath is my God hahaha)

Its really just about making sure kids don't feel like there missing out , they never feel there missing out on mass or the half time biscuit its that they aren't being made a fuss of and their class mates are all getting this big day out and their not , tbh i think that girl in work nailed it from that point of view. Have a big party or bring em on a big trip let them organize it it OP that's all you need , no need to try and rip of the RCC creepy mock wedding ceremony

infogiver

smacl wrote: »

A family marking a day to let their little girl know she is hugely important and greatly loved at a time when other families are having celebrations for their kids is no bad thing and doesn't need any point beyond that. Great thing about not being a Catholic is the freedom to do it whenever and however it suits rather than getting shoe-horned into what appears from an outside perspective to be a highly commercial and competitive event that may well be pointless to the child. Whatever the intended point, the central theme seems very much about greed and one-upmanship.

If the parents of the little girl adopt a common sense approach to the whole thing from the start then she should have no problem accepting that some of the children in her class are celebrating a religious occasion and having a party afterwards, and that their celebration is not indicative of those children being loved and cherished anymore then any other child.
Why on earth would you want to give a child the impression that cakes and bouncy castles are expressions of love?