A5

02-66

"When we progress and love God we get better from day to day, wiser and happier, but at the same time taking an interest in all kinds of social pleasures and amusements."

02-94

"We have parties and celebrate Christmas."

02-109

"Well we had our tree. It was ornamented with real jewels as well as toys and we had little images of all kinds of birds and beasts. The children all stood around and sang beautiful Christmas hymns, and when all the presents were off the tree, we dematerialized it, and it melted away into a green vapor, and disappeared."

16-4

"After my last life, my group organized one hell of a party with music, wine, dancing, and singing. They arranged everything to look like a classical Roman festival with marble halls, togas, and all the exotic furnishings prevalent in our many lives together in the ancient world."

19-61

"We have our great meetings, our vast assemblies, our meeting-houses, our grand assembly halls. … Our meetings are for the purpose of our own good and for the purpose of devising ways and means whereby all below us may be brought up to our light, to our homes, to our achievements."

19-398

"We have various societies here, some of which are for the purpose of assisting needy souls into better conditions. These are called benevolent societies. And these societies work by means of committees very much the same as your societies, except these committees work somewhat differently. We do not solicit financial aid as on earth, but visit the needy with spiritual food."

20-176

"We do not need holidays. Our life is a feast of work; not a labour, but a feast, more enjoyable than any holiday."

25-91

"In addition to our studies we have many other sources of intellectual, moral, and heartfelt enjoyment, from which we derive the most ineffable pleasure: one of which is social reunions and convivial meetings; a coming together of dear friends, brothers, sisters, children and parents; where the liveliest emotion and tenderest affections of our nature are excited, and the fondest and most endearing reminiscences are awakened; where spirit meets in unison with spirit, and heart beats responsive to heart."

29-37

"In the spirit lands both Christmas and Easter are looked upon as birthdays: the first, a birth into the earth world; the second, a birth into the spirit world. In this realm the two celebrations synchronize with those upon the earth, since there is then a greater spiritual link between the two worlds than would be the case if the festivals were held independently of season."

30-114

"Ceremony we still perform, in a fuller and wider sense, for there is ever a need for the upliftment of the soul by dedicated and meaningful action correlated with intense thought and aspiration."

32-39

"This festival of Easter has been a most uplifting experience. Here we continue to practice the rites of our respective churches, for on this plane we are conscious of our earthly personalities and modes of living."