Celebrate Our Christian Holidays Like You Were There

Celebrating holidays unique to our American Christian history throughout the 12 month year is a tradition shared with every culture and civilization according to their own unique history. Every people group from earliest times have marked events in their history with memorializing activities. They are teaching tools to pass onto subsequent generations the who, what, when, where, how, and why of their people.
But even as we, collectively and commercially, celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Columbus Day, Reformation Day, and more, how do we mark its historic significance to who we are as an individual, as an American citizen, and as a Christian beyond feasting and door-buster sales?

In his book, “Celebrate Our Christian Holidays Like You Were There,” Dr. Max Lyons, shares concise details from primary source documents outlining specific holidays celebrated in our nation—why we celebrate them and the importance of passing these Holy Days of remembrance onto our children. And our children’s children. From generation to generation. In so doing, we teach and learn from whence we came. This gives us our national identity. When you know where you came from, you know who you are—giving you firm direction for where you ought to be going in the future.

In the preface to this excellent resource for the American family, schools, churches, and the patriotic community at large, he notes:

“A holiday is literally a Holy Day, a day to be set apart to remember God and His works on behalf of His people . . . As Americans, we also have holidays that commemorate God’s work in the life of our nation. These are excellent opportunities to present to our children, as well as to adults, stories of how God has intervened in the life of our nation. Parents and teachers will first need to learn the biblical aspects of these holidays before they can effectively pass their true meaning on to their children.”

What follows in the book is a short overview of the Providential view of history in America in part 1, with a series of skits, plays, and monologues for teaching purposes in part 2.

Copious amounts of primary source excerpts with source sites are provided for further independent research. The interactive drama elements are not complicated and easily adapted for homeschool, classrooms, church, and family devotions. For me, teaching and learning through story and drama are a singular passion and way of life. Teaching history in the manner of “story”–His Story–enlivens an event beyond the dry prose of a printed page. Glorious moments live again and are super-charged to impact a new generation with empathy and understanding of former generations.

This embodying of history is what fills our national battlefields each year with men and women devoted to re-enacting decisive moments of the past that carry import for our present. Personally, I enjoy participating with patriotic Americans a couple times a year in remembering our national trials and sacrifices during the Civil War.

Dr. Lyons’ book provides an invaluable resource for the American Christian family. His decades of experience as an historian and teacher, using Principle Approach Education, informs the scholarship and methodology of this interactive work.

I am happy to recommend Dr. Lyons’ excellent resource book about American holidays to you! I was honored to study under his mentoring some 20 years ago–when I was first introduced to a biblical understanding of our nation’s history. With the light of literacy and learning burning bright from my studies through the years, such has been a part of my personal reflections, writing, and teaching life ever since.

Bravo, Dr. Lyons!