The holiday celebrations in Unitarian Universalist congregations reflect the six Sources of our faith.

Many Unitarian Universalists and our congregations celebrate Christian holidays like Christmas, Jewish holidays like Passover, and Pagan Wheel-of-the-Year, among others. Our holiday services use the stories and traditions creatively, calling us to our deeper humanity and our commitment to the good.

In addition to religious holidays, we also honor secular holidays including Earth Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Labor Day, Indigenous Peoples Day, and Thanksgiving.

Flower Communion

The Flower Communion takes place in the spring. It was originally created in 1923 by Unitarian minister Norbert Capek, who founded the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia. The service was later brought to the United States by his wife, Maya. Each congregant brings a flower to the Sunday service and places it in a shared vase near the podium. During the ceremony, the flowers are blessed by the minister, and each person selects a flower from the bouquet other than the one that he or she brought.

Reginald Zottoli wrote “The significance of the flower communion is that as no two flowers are alike, so no two people are alike, yet each has a contribution to make. Together the different flowers form a beautiful bouquet. Our common bouquet would not be the same without the unique addition of each individual flower, and thus it is with our church community: it would not be the same without each and every one of us. Thus this service is a statement of our community.”

Water Communion

The Water Communion was first held at a Unitarian Universalist worship service in the 1980s. Many UU congregations now hold a Water Communion once a year, often at the beginning of the new church year (September).

Members bring a small amount of water from a place that is special to them or use water provided in a pitcher at the front of the sanctuary. During the appointed time in the service, people one by one pour their water into a large community bowl. The combined water is symbolic of our shared faith coming from many different sources. It is often then blessed by the congregation and  is later boiled and used as the congregation’s “holy water” in child dedication ceremonies and similar events.