Devout Students at Hogwarts (WAS: Religion Again...)

[ssk7882]

No: HPFGUIDX 34296

Judy wrote:
 
> So, what do we know about religion in general in the Potterverse?
> We know that Christmas is celebrated at Hogwarts.  And, there is an 
> Easter break.  And, we never see students complain that their
> religion is being left out.  

Oh, well.  There are lots of things that we never see about Hogwarts,
but that I think we can feel free to deduce do indeed go on behind
the scenes.  We only see the story from Harry's POV, after all, and
Harry is hardly an aspiring journalist.  Curiosity is *not* one
of his personal strengths.  Neither is observation.

All that we can really deduce from Harry's POV, IMO, is that there 
are no students in Harry's own circle of Gryffyndor friends who 
object to Hogwarts' Christian culture.  For all we know, there's
that one kid in Ravenclaw who complains *constantly* about it, and
circulates petitions every year objecting to the school's 
insistence on decking the halls with boughs of holly at Yuletide, and 
badgers all of his friends into wearing the badges he whips up in the 
library, and takes no end of flack from the Slyths about this 
eccentricity during their shared Herbology class...

But that kid's not cute or pretty, like Cho Chang, and it has nothing 
to do with Quiddich or Voldemort or any of Harry's friends.  So he 
just never noticed it.

(Hermione, OTOH, does know all about it, as the boy in question was
the one who taught her how to make those SPEW badges.  But since it's 
never come up in conversation, she's never bothered to mention 
it to Harry.)

> What does this tell us?  Well, I'd guess that there are no 
> practicing Jews or Muslims at Hogwarts.  I just don't see what 
> they'd eat.  

I feel convinced that a school willing to make special arrangements
for a werewolf would manage, somehow, to accomodate unusual dietary
restrictions.  Real world boarding schools do so, and so do summer 
camps -- and they don't even have magic to help them out.

So Dumbledore just goes down to the kitchens and explains matters to
the House Elves, and they conjure up separate stoves and ovens and
dishes and the like for the kosher students, and the Elves are
thrilled to death to be given such a nice heavy load of extra
complication to their work, and when the food all gets magicked
up onto the tables, the kids with the special dietary restrictions
get their special food on individual plates at their seats.  And when 
the regular dinner is Shepherd's Pie yet *again,* all of the other 
kids at their table are madly jealous of them.  Just like on 
airlines. ;)

Again, I don't think that just because something doesn't bludgeon its 
way into either Harry's field of notice or the author's list of 
Things the Reader Must Be Shown, we should necessarily assume that
they are excluded from the realm of possibility.  The narrative
just isn't concerning itself with such matters.


> And, I think Muslims would have a hard time with the course 
> schedule; when would they pray? Jews, Muslims, and people of other 
> non-Christian faiths might have a hard time with classes being held 
> on their holidays, too. 

Just as in real schools, I imagine that special dispensation is
offered to those students devout enough to request it.  The devout
Muslims are allowed to slip quietly out of class to say their 
prayers, and groups of devout Christians and Jews get ferried off
to their respective houses of worship once a week.  

At any rate, that's how things get done in many boarding schools
here in the US.  And really, if you aren't close friends with any
of the religious students yourself, and if you are not by nature
terribly observant (I am not), then it is quite possible to go for 
literally *years* before you realize that the reason So-and-so is 
never around on Sunday mornings is because she gets taken off to 
morning services by a designated member of the staff every week.  
Embarrassing, yes.  But quite possible.


> On the other hand, we don't see any Christian students praying, 
> either. There is no mention of a chapel, as far as I recall.  So,
> my best guess is that Hogwarts is made up almost entirely of 
> cultural Christians, but few if any of them are very observant. 

Thus reflecting fairly well the Muggle society it parallels, no?


--- Elkins