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Decluttering Dilemma What to Do With Religious Items
How to respectfully get rid of old Bibles prayer rugs yarmulkes and more
Terryfic3D/Getty Images; Wokephoto17/Getty Images; Thanit Weerawan/Getty Images The past two years might one day become known as The Great Decluttering. With more time at home, junk drawers beckon, guest rooms are cleaned out to become offices , and kids are moving back home. Older adults are to smaller living spaces. It may be a lot of work to get rid of unwanted items, but generally it’s not too difficult to determine what is trash, what needs repair and what to donate. But what happens when you have a ripped Bible, too many mezuzahs or no space for Mom’s collection of rosary beads? Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. When it comes to repairing or getting rid of religious articles , people have lot s of questions. Do these items need special care in disposal? Can they ever be tossed? And what makes something a religious item? Non-holy items
When Marla Alt, 60, recently downsized from a house in New York’s Westchester County to an apartment in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, she had to decide what to do with all the Jewish “religious art and decorative items that we no longer needed nor have the space to own.” Alt, who’s known as “The Moving Whisperer,” is a move management expert and owner of 123 organize . She wanted to get rid of Jewish-themed posters and a havdalah set, which typically includes a kiddush cup to hold wine or grape juices and a candleholder for the candle that, when lit, signifies the end of the Sabbath. Alt ended up passing those things on to an online auction, which Rabbi Julie Zupan , director of Jewish learning and engagement at the New York City-based Union for Reform Judaism, says is just fine , at least for those particular items. Since Jewish practice centers around the home, Jewish families often own a trove of ritual items, but they are not considered “holy” in the way that a sacred item inscribed with the name of God might be, says Zupan. Flowers & Gifts 25% off sitewide and 30% off select items See more Flowers & Gifts offers > So if an item is not “blessed,” it’s not considered “holy ,” and it’s not something that needs special care when it comes to disposal. Doyle cites the examples of statuary or a rosary (a chain , traditionally used during prayer, that’s made up of a series of beads, a small medal and a crucifix) that may have been mailed out as a gift from a religious order. “Religious orders don’t customarily bless articles they send out,” Doyle says. In that case, those items could, technically, be thrown away. Blessed and sacred items
However, palm fronds, symbols of peace and eternal life distributed during Palm Sunday services and which some parishioners might keep in their homes, are blessed. “These should be burned,” Doyle says. “Most parishes invite people to bring palm fronds back, and they burn them on Lent the following year.” In Hinduism, according to Sanjay Mehta, past general secretary of the World Hindu Council of America, holiness stems from an object’s use in puja , or daily worship. Items such as pictures of Bhagwan (“blessed one ” or God) and murti (visible forms such as statuary) , as well as spiritual texts like the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana or Vedas , are are all considered sacred and must be handled with respect. “These can be donated to family or friends or given to religious institutions,” Mehta says. Islam is fairly “artifact -free,” says Omer Abdullah, editor of Islamic Horizons, the magazine of the Islamic Society of North America. Practicing Muslims own prayer rugs, which Abdullah says are “symbolic and aesthetic. There’s nothing religious about it. We can pray on any clean surface , like carpeting or flooring.” AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe More on home-family AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS