Secular Christmas in the Potterverse?

[judyserenity]

No: HPFGUIDX 34185

> jenny_ravenclaw wrote:
> > In JKR's world of witches and wizards, her characters all seem to 
> > celebrate Halloween, Christmas and Easter (or at least have an 
> > Easter break).  People have said a
> > number of times that even though the Potterverse celebrates these
> > holidays, it is done in a secular manner.  I have to say that I 
> > think there is no such thing as celebrating certain holidays in a 
> > secular way.

and John Walton responded:
> I disagree. It is entirely possible to celebrate Christmas without 
> ever celebrating the "christ" aspect. I certainly do: though I am a 
> Pagan, I Reclaim the holiday* and celebrate the secular aspects of 
> it while separately celebrating the seasonal aspects of it.

On the topic of religion and Hogwarts, this is what the British 
participants here seem to be saying: In England, just about everyone 
celebrates Christmas, even people who do not consider themselves 
religious.  Therefore, the fact that Hogwarts has a Christmas 
celebration (and an Easter break), tells us nothing about the 
religiosity (or lack thereof) of the wizarding world.

That makes sense to me.  However, this leaves the question of *why*  
Christmas is celebrated in England even by non-religious people.  I 
suspect that it is due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of 
people in Britain are of Christian ancestry.  (Christianity is even 
the official state religion in Emgland, is it not?) 

So, this still raises questions about why Christmas is celebrated at 
Hogwarts.  Did the wizarding world pick up this custom from Muggles?  
As others have noted, this seems odd because wizards keep so separate 
from the Muggle world.  Maybe wizards *used* to be practicing 
Christians, but are less devout now?  We really don't know. 

Now, I feel very strongly on the topic of whether there is such a 
thing as a "secular Christmas."  I, like Jenny, am Jewish, and I, like 
Jenny, say that Christmas is intrinsically a Christian holiday and can 
not be made secular.  Let me clarify what I mean by that.  Are there 
people who consider themselves non-religious, who celebrate Christmas? 
 Of course; lots of them.  But is it fair to ask someone who is an 
observant member of another faith to celebrate Christmas?  I 
definitely don't think so.  I've often been pressured by 
well-intentioned people who assure me that Christmas isn't really 
religious and that therefore I should go ahead and celebrate it.  
Sorry, no way.  My religion forbids it. 

Maybe this is what Jenny meant -- don't ask *her* to celebrate 
Christmas, even in a "secular" way; non-Christians shouldn't be 
required to celebrate Christmas at all. 

It seems that Jenny, John, and I all self-identify as 
non-Christian. So, why is celebrating Christmas a hot-button issue for 
me (and maybe Jenny) but not for John?  Well, I'm no Paganism expert, 
but I see several interesting possibilities.  

The first reason is that Paganism isn't a monotheistic religion (as 
far as I know), and strictly avoiding other religions is usually more 
important to monotheists than to practitioners of polytheistic (or 
pantheistic?) faiths. 

The second reasom is, as John notes, that Christmas celebrations 
ofetn have a number of Pagan elements, such as the Christmas tree.  
Also, Christmas is celebrated at the time of the winter solstice, 
which I believe is extremely important to Pagans. The situation is 
quite different in Islam and Judaism, which vigorously reject Pagan 
elements, and have no major holidays at the winter solstice.  Judaism 
has all its important holidays at the equinoxes. (Hanukkah is *not* an 
important holiday; a lot of observant Jews don't even celebrate it.) 
Islam is not tied to the solar calendar at all; its holidays shift 
throughout the year.  So, Jews and Muslims don't have the "cover" of 
celebrating one of their holidays at the same time as Christmas. (By 
the way, the whole idea of adding Menorahs and other Hanukkah elements 
to Christmas celebrations drives me up the wall. It seems to be 
something that Christians came up with, not Jews. Usually, Hannukah is 
long over by Christmastime, anyway.) 

The third possible reason is that Jenny and I were raised in 
non-Christian religions.  John, I can be pretty sure that 
your *cultural* background is Christian, even if that is not your 
current religion.  Why? Because John is very much a Christian name.  
(It is the Christian version of the Jewish name Elijah [in Hebrew, 
Eliyahu], which means "My God Is Jah."  I believe the closest Muslim 
equivalent is Ali, "My God", which unlike Elijah and John does not 
contain a form of God's personal name.) 

Ok, so how does this apply to the Potterverse?  Is Christmas a 
hot-button issue for any of the students?  Well, we haven't seen 
anyone named Moshe Cohen or Abdul Mohammed, so we don't know how 
they'd feel. The only people we've seen who are apparently from a 
non-Christian background are the Patil sisters.  I think we can be 
certain that they come from a Hindu background.  Parvati is a very 
important Hindu goddess -- often described as the wife of "Shiva the 
Destroyer," she could also be seen as Shiva personified as a wife and 
mother.  I can't imagine a non-Hindu having the name Parvati.  
However, Hinduism, as a polytheistic faith, probably wouldn't 
emphasize avoiding other religions to the extent that the three 
"religions of the Book" (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) do.  Also, 
I believe there is an important Hindu festival in mid-winter.  So, 
maybe Christmas isn't an issue for the Patils.

We can't be sure that Cho is non-Christian; Christianity is rare in 
China but is more common among ethnic Chinese living in the west.  If 
Cho followed traditional Chinese religions (Buddhism/ Taoism/ 
Confucianism/ Animism), adding a Christian celebration probably 
wouldn't bother her.  Traditionally, most Chinese belonged to several 
religions simultaneously. (There was tremendous conflict between 
Christian missionaries and local people in Imperial China, but adding 
in Christian celebrations wasn't the problem.) By the way, the 
spelling of Cho's name implies that her family left China before the 
Communists took over, so her being a "devout Communist" and objecting 
to Christmas as "the opiate of the masses" is very unlikely. (No one 
in China seems to believe that any more, anyway.) 

And, let me also try to answer a question John asked:
> A practicing Jew in my small town of about 15,000, for instance, 
> would have serious trouble finding Kosher for Passover food
> ...I do wonder how Jews keep Kosher...

I can answer this, as I grew up in the only Jewish family for miles 
around.  (This was in rural New York State.)  There are two options 
for keeping kosher in an area where certified Kosher food is 
unavailable.  The first is to get kosher-certified food from elsewhere 
-- travel a long distance or order food via mail.  We would make a 
journey once a month to buy kosher meat, which we kept in a freezer.  
The second possibility is to prepare food from scratch.  Only meats 
and prepared food need to be certified as kosher. (And many Jews are 
vegetarian.)  Most non-meat raw materials are considered kosher 
without an inspection. This would include all fruits, vegetables, 
nuts, fish that have scales and fins, milk or butter as long as you 
are sure it is from a cow or sheep or goat, chicken eggs, and I think 
flour. (Don't quote me on flour.)  I think many other raw materials 
(spices, salt, honey) are considered fine, too.  (Cheese is not; it 
often has animal enzymes in it.) So, we didn't starve. It was very 
frustrating, though, not to be able to buy baked goods, tv dinners, 
canned foods, mixes, etc.