Floating Holiday - Easter in Britain

[Hollydaze]

No: HPFGUIDX 34153

Christi wrote:
> Perhaps it due to the separation of church and state 
> concept; however the Catholic schools in our area have the same 
> spring break schedule as the public schools, and have a separate 
> break for the Easter Tridium. Wouldn't it be easier for Hogwarts to 
> have a regularly scheduled break between terms rather than 
> celebrating a holiday which moves around the calendar? 
Ok first I'm not trying to offend any one!

Basically I see it that this is (again) the case that you have to keep in mind that the original audience of these books (apart form JK herself) were British people (I'm not going to say Adult/child cos I don't want to start that up again!). This means she will stick to something that is familiar, (not just to her but to others in that audience) if she wants it to get published, otherwise she would have to spend a couple of pages explaining how their school day/year actually works.

The British school year is very similar in every school although days may change every so often, like one school may split up for a holiday one or two days before another one, but it is never usually more than 3 days. The days also change each year because of different dates being on different days (example, the 1st of September one year might be a Tuesday so you would go back on Tuesday the 1st, but another year it might be a Saturday in which case you would go back on Tuesday the 4th). Below are the recent dates for my school just to give you an idea about how the school day works and what I will be referring to:

AUTUMN TERM:
Term starts: Tuesday 4th Sept.
Halfterm Holiday: Monday 22nd Oct - Friday 26th Oct.
Term Ends: Friday 21st Dec.

SPRING TERM:
Term Starts: Monday 7th of Jan
Halfterm Holiday: Monday 18th Feb - Friday 22nd Feb.
Term Ends: Friday 22 March.

SUMMER TERM:
Term Starts: Monday 8th April.
Halfterm Holiday: Monday 3rd June - Friday 7th June.
Term Ends: Friday 19th July.


Now admittedly the Summer holiday at Hogwarts does seem to be slightly longer than the one that "Muggle" schools would have as they seem to split up somewhere near the end of June rather than in the Middle of July but this could be because Hogwarts does not appear to have the Halfterm holidays (week long breaks in the middle of each term, see above) which Muggle schools have, so they get a longer break at the end of the year to compensate. The reason I say it appears to end near the end of June is that in book 3, Harry has his last exam on June the 6th, and the exam results come out a week alter (June the 11th) it is unlikely they would stay at school much longer. The "around" is because (as you'll see if you look at Lexicon) the exam dates don't really fit with those days for that years so the exam may actually have been the 6th to the 10th, getting the results on the 17th (which is how Lexicon has it - it marks down both) and then leaving on the 18th. this is about 4 weeks earlier than muggle schools would split up. But Muggle schools get the 3, weeklong holidays through out the year (plus about five teacher training days) which equals the two up - Hogwarts does not appear to have Teacher training days!!!
In Muggle schools, the Autumn term is basically the same every year (maybe starting a few days earlier and finishing a few days earlier), but the spring and summer terms change because of this "floating holiday" that is Easter. So one year you might have a REALLY short Spring term and a REALLY long Summer term, while another year they will both be about the same length (Spring is ALWAYS either the same or shorter than summer, never longer!), it all depends on where Easter falls. As JK taught in England (as well as in Portugal) she would be quite familiar with the British school year and that is probably why she used it as her basis for the Hogwarts school years. Of course this leads us into discussions about the problem of what the school day would have been like before they had muggle schools and other such things. But I think that is the basic reason that The Hogwarts school year is a distorted reflection of the British Muggle school year (distorted in that the Summer holidays don't quite match up). That and the fact that if she changed it she would have to include one of those pages they have at the front of books to explain things that are different (I know a book that explains about the times of Breakfast, Lunch, Tea and Dinner -although I can't remember/find which one it is now- because they are referenced in the book but are different to what they are now.)

It was probably just easier to write it that way.

HOLLYDAZE!!!


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