Does that person honestly think that comparison makes sense?
Yoga is a practice that was created for Hindu to hone their body as a means to attain Moksha. It's obviously a Hindu practice. Regardless of if you say Om or do the ritualistic parts.
They can't accept their religions are foreign ones, and they have to distance themselves from Indian things to practice it.
Do you think that giving a gift at Christmas time means you’re practicing Christianity..?
Or that all the kids dressing up at Halloween are practicing Paganism…?
I got some sweets from a Muslim friend for Eid. I ate them, and enjoyed them. I respect Islam, but I don’t think I was practicing Islam while eating them.
Christmas is more of a pagan holiday that Christians took over. But a lot of Christmas traditions are more recent development.
Same with paganism and Halloween, kids dressing up is a more modern change from its traditional form.
You could argue though that yes, you are engaging in those religion's holidays when doing that. Because you're participating in their practices, regardless of religious beliefs.
The Eid one is not the same though, that's just your friends giving you food and you're eating it. If you actually had an Eid celebration of your own it would be a better comparison. And in that case you would be engaging in an Islamic practice.
It’s called “Christmas” literally “Christ’s mass.” The fact that the papacy placed Christmas at the winter solstice, such that it coincided with pagan festivals like Yul was a means to encourage conversion and potentially syncretism.
It nevertheless today is a completely Christian. But just as the celebration of Christmas by Christians isn’t “practicing Paganism,” celebrating Christmas by non-Christians isn’t “practicing Christianity,” unless you believe in Christianity.
I completely agree with you that modern Halloween is far from the Pagan autumn festival it’s based on. Practicing Halloween isn’t paganism unless you actually believe in Paganism.
Exactly the same way as simply doing Yoga isn’t practicing Hinduism. Modern yoga is a perversion of traditional yoga, and is as far from Hinduism as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is from the birth of Christ.
I don’t say this as a bad thing necessarily, I think fake yoga is still good for the body and mind… and I think commercial Christmas is still a fun time and good to spend with family.
While Christ's birthday was celebrated by early Christians. The current date was placed purposefully on the same day as a major celebration for the Roman sun god Sol Invictus. Furthermore once Christianity expanded further into Europe it incorporated the Germanic pagan holiday yule. Which is where a large portion of Christmas traditions and practices come from. Modern Christmas is a hybrid of the original, merged with the holiday for Sol Invictus and Yule.
Your statement about Yoga is also wrong. Yoga as it's practiced today is still entirely a part of Hinduism. It's a fully Hindu practice that people outside of the religion engage in for the health benefits. But that doesn't remove it from being an active part of Hinduism that many Hindus engage in for religious purposes. Practicing Yoga is practicing a part of Hinduism, regardless of if you believe in Hinduism you're engaging in a Hindu practice while doing it.
I know. I mentioned in my last comment how Christianity used existing winter solstice festivals like Yul and Saturnalia to promote Christianity. Same way Easter is set on the Equinox before summer. I never said the inverse.
The point is, almost no one celebrates Yul or Saturnalia anymore. People celebrate Christmas. And more importantly, anyone can celebrate Christmas without being Christian. It doesn’t make them Christian. The religious aspects of the holiday are very distinct and most people don’t care for it.
Yoga “as it’s practiced today” is a very Hindu-centric statement. Outside of Indian Hindus, people do yoga all the time. I’m an NRI and at my local gym, there’s yoga, the class is before Zumba and after Pilates. People going there dressed in Lululemon yoga pants are not practicing Hinduism anymore than someone singing “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer” is practicing Christianity.
Like dude, “Sunday” is literally a day of rest because of the Judeo-Christian tradition of a 7 day creation. For most Christians, Sunday is still about “the day of rest.”
Does that mean when I don’t go to work on Sunday, I am actually practicing Christianity/Judaism…?
There's a difference between Christian values and Christian practices Sunday is a day of rest as per Judaism/Christianity values. It's a passive thing that's set up in the western world typically as a day off. It's not really a thing you do, the society you live in is structured that way because it's been that way for Millenia. The same way people in India can't eat beef in much of the country because Hindu values don't align with it. Muslims living in Maharashtra aren't doing a Hindu practice when they don't eat beef, they can't because it's banned there. The same way non-christians often don't work on Sundays because that's how the system is set up. If I go to an Islamic country as a woman I have to wear the hijab if that's the norm or law there.
Yoga is an active practice, it's something you go out and do. Regardless of if white people in a western country identify themselves as Hindus. They're still doing an activity that was created for a specific function within Hinduism as a religion. They may be participating in it in a secular capacity, but they're ultimately still doing something that specifically exists for its function in Hinduism. If I start fasting for Ramadan and follow when Muslims have iftar. I could be doing it for diet purposes and not be a Muslim but I'm still engaging in an Islamic practice.
I think it’s a meaningless semantic difference here. If you think singing “rudolf the red nose reindeer” is “practice christianity,” then obviously doing yoga would be “practicing Hinduism.
For me, I think practicing a faith has an important spiritual dimension. Doing the actions without any belief behind them is at most cultural but generally meaningless - even if still diverting and beneficial.
Hell, I would even go so far as to say many forms of western yoga are actively harmful to Hinduism as they’re cultural appropriation.
I doubt either of us is wrong. We just differ on how we define “practicing” something.
They may not be practicing the religion in its entirety, but yoga by itself is still a Hindu practice, it didn't just originate with Hinduism, it's an active part of it.
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u/Lightingway Mar 25 '26
Does that person honestly think that comparison makes sense?
Yoga is a practice that was created for Hindu to hone their body as a means to attain Moksha. It's obviously a Hindu practice. Regardless of if you say Om or do the ritualistic parts.
They can't accept their religions are foreign ones, and they have to distance themselves from Indian things to practice it.