Atheism and You
Hey FullMetal Alchemist ficcers? Have you forgotten or are you simply ignoring that the world of FMA has no Christianity?



Amestris is entirely secular, guys. As in, they don't even have a religion they COULD be subscribing to, not that they choose not to acknowledge one. And yet, you have them celebrating Halloween and Christmas. You can't have missed Ed's giant "I AM AN ATHEIST" rant in the first episode, it was a huge plot point.

Christianity was literally destroyed as a religion about a century prior to the plot, so only really old folks will even have heard of it, much less actually know anything about it. If you want anyone from FMA verse to celebrate a holiday, you're going to have to actually think about it. Canon gives us exactly two religions--the cult of the Sun God Lito which was proven false, and Ishbala, which being based on Islam, may have holidays, but they won't be anything the same as Christian holidays. It'd still be a stretch for a lot of the characters to want to celebrate something having to do with a god they don't believe in.

It's probably easier to assume that the people of Amestris celebrate the changing of the seasons and the New Year as pretty much every society does--the Solstices don't necessarily have to carry any religious weight, nor does the change of the calendar year, but both have significance that bears celebrating. The customs for each can even still correspond to Christian holidays with a bit of tweaking! Likewise, Amestris might have it's own version of Independence Day and Thanksgiving, but you're going to have to explain WHY they have them in the first place.