Tradition (owls etc)

[flying_ford_anglia]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C3194
From: flying_ford_anglia
Subject: Tradition (owls etc)
Date: 7/2/00 11:57 am  (ET)

On the subject of the owl post, I think it's a combination of the unique
'target & seek' qualities of the owls (as several people have suggested)
and a very powerful concept, known as tradition.

Tradition and custom can explain a great many apparently silly things
in the Muggle world, such as:

- why barristers in Britain wear tiny wigs made of horsehair, even when
they aren't bald;
- why, at Christmas, many people display a half-dead pine tree in the
corner their living space;
- why people say 'excuse me' when they mean 'get out of the WAY!!!';
- why we have 24 hours in a day, and seven days in a week, when everything
else is decimal;
- why planet earth boasts so many languages when it would be easier to
have one;
- why The Queen is, apparently, still an attraction;
- why we celebrate the day we were born, every year, when we're just a
bit closer to being dead;
- why we give any actress over 70 a standing ovation just for still
being in existence;
- why we shake hands when we no longer carry swords;
- why brides have to look like brides;

Why should the Magic world be any different to the Muggle world? Hogwarts
is steeped in tradition - candles, robes, banquets, cermonies... the
owls seem right at home there, to me.

Neil