Christmas at Hogwarts (Was Re: Faith Education)

[junediamanti]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Martha" 
<fakeplastikcynic at h...> wrote:
> Ms Tattersall:
> 
> <snippage>
> Looks like they've decorated for 
> > a traditional Christmas celebration at Hogwarts. Is that because 
> the 
> > majority of students at Hogwarts are of the Christian persuasion 
or 
> > of the pagan persuasion? An interesting puzzle, since the 
Christmas 
> > tree is part of both traditions in the modern world. Obviously 
> (house 
> > rivalries aside), they all seem to get along.
> 
> A few thoughts from Martha:
> 
> I always got the impression that magic in the JKR sense is 
> unconnected with religion - it's something concrete, you can 
conjure 
> up a chair or turn a hedgehog into a pincushion or make a potion to 
> make you look like someone else, etc. There is ritual involved (for 
> example, having to say certain words for certain spells, using a 
> particular wand movement, stirring a potion however many times) but 
> the end result is very specific. If you like, it's a measureable 
> quantity. It's not the same as what we might call pagan magic in 
the 
> real world, which is much closer to prayer in, say, Christianity. 
> Students at Hogwarts are being instructed in magic as school age 
> students in the real world (well, in Western society at least) are 
> taught chemistry or maths or physics. So the religion of students 
is 
> unconnected with their magical training. (Is this making sense?)

June:
I think from the outset, JKR has been at very careful pains NOT to 
get involved in any religious yea or nay arguments.  There is a 
Christmas in the books - and while Christmas is a Christian festival -
 it is here presented in the more secular way of being a good holiday 
where presents are given and the food is good.  

She is just as careful to avoid being claimed by pagans and wiccans 
too.  

I think there are two main reasons for this:

1.  A wish to make the books accessible to children from all 
backgrounds, ethnic and religious (obviously excepting where the 
parents are the kinds of fundamentalists who inveigh against these 
books and I doubt if too many of them are reading this post!)- 
because at the end of the day these are just good childrens's 
stories.  

2.  To avoid religious controversy where possible.  Clearly there's 
always the fanatics but you can't make any book fanatic proof.  
Having the books claimed by wiccans as justification for their 
existence would be equally against the audience she wishes to claim 
(and Wiccans out there - I'm not having a go - I don't have any need 
to prove my credentials as tolerant!)
> 
> Ms Tattersall:
> 
> > What, then, of the students who might not be of either 
persuasion? 
> > I'm not an HP scholar--don't really feel comfortable 
participating 
> on 
> > the main list--but JKR has obviously created a WW student 
> population 
> > that represents the diverse population of the RW. The two 
students 
> > who come to mind are Parvati and Padma Patil, whom I would guess 
to 
> > be Indian or Pakistani. How do they feel about the Christmas tree 
> if 
> > they come from, say, a Hindu culture?

June:
I can speak of the British Primary school system (aged 5 - 11) which 
usually has to deal with this the most, and generally schools are at 
pains to promote multi-culturalism in a healthy and tolerant way.  If 
kids pick up prejudices - they tend to learn these at home.  Schools 
here do take the MOST notice of Christmas unless they are in heavily 
asian immigrant areas for example - but I think that's because it can 
be presented in a child-friendly way.  However, children are 
generally taught about whichever other religious festivals are 
happening and affect their fellow pupils:  my daughter knew about 
Ramadan, Channukkah and Diwali very much earlier than I ever did and 
I thoroughly approved.  Not all parents DO and schools sometimes have 
to tread a difficult line between tradition and multi-culturalism.  
This works both ways, incidentally with some Muslim parents being 
opposed to their children learning about Christmas in addition to the 
expected stereotype of the white racist parents objecting to little 
Johnny learning about Diwali.

> 
> Martha:
> 
> Agreed. Anthony Goldstein also springs to mind (correct me if I'm 
> wrong, but "Goldstein" sounds Jewish to me). However, the ritual of 
> Christmas - trees and advent calendars and Father Christmas and 
all - 
> has become, I think, fairly far removed from actually going to 
church 
> and so on, at least in Britain. I'm an atheist through and through 
> and the majority of my friends are either non-religious or non-
> Christian and we all still have Christmas trees with angels on top, 
> and at school there were Christmas decorations and a Christmas 
dinner 
> with karaoke and tinsel. My sister's husband is Sikh and they are 
> bringing up their children without religion, but they still have a 
> Christmas tree and stockings and things. It's like how the holidays 
> are still called the Christmas/Easter holidays regardless of what 
you 
> actually do with them. Hogwarts, as far as we know, follows this 
> tradition. In any case, there may well be services for students of 
> all religions at Hogwarts, but we haven't heard of them, because 
> Harry hasn't gone to them.
> 


June:
I think the Christmas at Hogwarts was written in as much to give 
HARRY an experience of love and warmth - something he had NEVER 
experienced before (or at least since his parents died).  A subtext 
of the book is a boy's search for family and his receiving of simple 
but loving gifts - like the homemade Weasley jumper (and there were 
tears in my eyes when I read that bit) is the first experience of 
family, festival and happiness that he can remember in his life.  His 
receiving of "homemade" but loving presents may also be a sly 
broadside by JKR against the increasing commercialisation of 
Christmas - and given the current state of siege of my bank account 
at this time of year - what's wrong with that?

June