Religion in HP

[c_voth312]

No: HPFGUIDX 40522

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "jenny_ravenclaw" <meboriqua at a...> wrote:
> *Sigh*  Jews don't traditionally celebrate either of these 
holidays.  
> Even though many Jews now celebrate Christmas (which bothers me), 
most 
> do not, and I have yet to meet one who ever celebrated Easter at 
all.  
> I am a Reformed Jew and while I was not raised in a kosher 
household 
> and I was Bat Mitzvahed, we never had a Christmas tree in our home 
and 
> Passover is still the holiday we acknowledge.

Good point, but another thing I think we have to keep in mind is that 
we see a relatively small percentage of the WW actively celebrating 
the holidays: Harry, Hermione, the Weasleys, and a handful of 
Hogwarts faculty and student body members.  There's absolutely 
nothing to indicate that other students aren't at home with their 
families celebrating Haunnakah, or Ramadan, or whatever.
 
> I don't think JKR sat down and thought "Okay, my Wizarding World is 
> all Christian", but I'm willing to bet that she is, and most of the 
> people she knows are, too.  If JKR was Jewish, she would have most 
> likely changed the wording of these holidays to something more 
> generic, like Winter Holidays or Spring Break.  I just don't think 
she 
> thought about it one way or the other.
> 
> --jenny from ravenclaw **********************************

Actually, I think it has more to do with the fact that the primary 
characters observe Christmas and Easter, and so the wording is from 
*their* perspective, not Rowling's.

~Christi