A certificate of my first Communion, and a report card from fifth grade. I thought of framing the certificate as a laugh. Haven't done It.

that were hand made by my great uncle. He was an engraver and die cutter, and had a religious goods business.

One of the rosaries is from my mother's confirmation. I'm a lapsed Catholic agnostic/skeptic, but these rosaries have great sentimental value for me.

But in my case I think it's more procrastination than sentiment. I still have a couple of rosaries and stuff like that but it's just laziness. I guess I'd feel better giving them to someone who may get something from them rather than putting them in the trash.

I keep it for a number of reasons. One, the memory. Two, the reference. Three, it was that exact same bible, when I finally read it cover-to-cover, that helped steer me to atheism. And no, it wasn't even a King James Version!

Don't really have any other religious mementos - I grew up Lutheran and we didn't have much in the way of baubles or knick-knacks.

One my parents gave me for Xmas when I was a little kid. The standard KJV Bible almost every Baptist kid owned - black leatherette, gold trim, wrap-around zipper, etc.

I keep it exaclly where it belongs - on the same bookshelf as other certified holy books, along with Bullfinch's Mythology, The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology, etc.

One sits on the end table, it gets pretty dusty, but is used for reference every now and then. My husband is still waiting for his brother to send him the verses where Jesus preached against the gays so he can look them up...

I don't know why we got the bibles, the rest of the family believes that stuff. Maybe they're hoping we'll catch religion. My husband wants to keep one as a memory of his mother, but the rest we'll send to our nephews and niece. Our kids are non believers.

But there's nothing hypocritical about treasuring a keepsake that reminds you of a loved one.

we know the only meaning is that which we ascribe.
So these objects (and i have a few too) do not have religious meaning, they have significances for our family and our past.
They help us hold to memories of our childhood and l;oved ones.
Nothing wrong with that.

Look at all the ancient buildings and statues that are awe inspiring. they aren't so because of the gods they were built for, they have taken on different meanings.

Does that count?

But I have one hanging in my bedroom to catch bad dreams.

Maybe it's the reason that I rarely remember dreaming.

Come to think of it, I do have a cross my mother's cousin carved. It's quite lovely and I have no desire to get rid of it.

for my confirmation. I would never get rid of it, but only for that reason. I think that there are five or six Bibles in the house, but that one is the one that means something to me. I lost all my jewelry in a robbery years ago, so I don't have the crosses that my mother and grandmother gave me, or they would also mean something to me.

I am not very sentimental, but when you have so few things given by someone you loved, they do have importance. I suppose that you could say that your cross is a symbol of love for you and not a symbol or any religion.

My mother still has dishes that I remember from when I was a little kid in the 1940's. The oldest thing I have (aside from my own old, wrinkled self) is a ten-year-old T-shirt. (Goodwill does a brisk business in my old discards)

My mom still has some first communion pictures of me and my sisters. I'm hoping those will get passed down to my sisters when the time comes. I'm the very last person in the world who should be entrusted with heirlooms. Keepsakes are just more mathoms to dust and clean. Especially religious mathoms.

I don't use Rev. on my DL any more though.