Christian symbols and symbolism WAS Religion in the Potterverse

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 40638

Pam of Scotland writes:
> Whether you like it or not, there are a lot of former church       
> buildings around Britain that are no longer churches, some are     
> private houses (giving the owners an interesting time digging the  
> potato patch), some are entertainment centres, some are            
> deconsecrated and left to rot and their grounds are, at best,      
> wonderful wildlife refuges, and at worst, playgrounds for          
> activities of questionable legality and taste. 

It's pretty much the same argument as the baptism/christening. You 
assume that the graveyard setting has only a historical/social 
significance, I assume that it may have a Christian symbolism. You 
assume that the church ( in GoF p. 552 UK hardback) is closed and the 
graveyard unconsecrated until you find a board saying 'All Souls 
Little Hangleton, Services Sunday 11.00am', I assume that it is open 
until I reach the sign saying 'Little Hangleton Leisure Centre'.

Whether you like it or not [and yes, I am deliberately using your own 
choice of phrase] there are a lot of church buildings around Britain 
that are still very much in use as churches, including some in small 
villages like Little Hangleton. If you want to see the church in GoF 
as closed then that is your privilege as a reader; it is mine to see 
it as open.

Pam writes:
> the activities in it [the churchyard] are not necessarily          
> *sacriligeous*. 

Nuts, frankly. There's a big difference between the 'sex, drugs and 
rock and roll' that also goes on in the [consecrated] graveyard of my 
local church and digging up bones from a grave to use in some kind of 
ceremony (during which you also invert confession and communion as  
Eileen has pointed out in [#40549] ). Catlady has also pointed out 
that 'sacrilege' includes symbols or rituals [#40621] -it doesn't 
even *have* to take place on consecrated ground.

JKR had choices for that scene (GoF Chapters 32 to 34). If she'd 
simply wanted 'spooky' she could have had Harry appear in an ancient 
British stone circle and be tied to one of the standing stones. She 
could have had him appear in a dark and forbidding forest grove and 
be tied to an oak tree - both of those have a cultural and historical 
significance which used to be religious, and they still have enough 
connotations to be picked up as 'spooky' by most Brits. 

She could have had the bones of Tom Riddle Sr in a complete skeleton 
lying on the ground (pretty spooky) rather than showing them being 
sacriligeously taken from their grave (GoF p.556 UK hardback). She 
could have completely avoided the combination of blood, flesh and 
bone which suggests a sacriligeous inversion of 'body and blood' to a 
Christian belonging to a denomination which receives communion. She 
could certainly have avoided combining all this with the number of 
references she makes to the DE's being Voldemort's 'servants', which 
brings to mind a number of Christian Gospel admonitions along the 
lines of "the Son of Man did not come to be served; he came to 
serve..." (Mark Chapter 10, verse 45).

Any author who selects 'holly and phoenix feather' for Harry's wand, 
and 'yew and phoenix feather' for Voldemort's (PS/SS p. 65 UK 
paperback) probably knows more about using Christian symbolism than I 
do; and obviously isn't afraid to use symbols that many of her 
audience are unlikely to recognise.

The fact that a reader may not spot symbolism doesn't mean the author 
hasn't put it there. 

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Catlady writes:
> Can a Catholic answer if Catholics are bured in consecrated ground? 
> Can an Anglican (Little Hangleton has been decided to be in England 
> not Scotland) answer if Anglicans are buried in consecrated 
> ground?

I'll reply to this in OT chatter.

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Pip