Wizards and Muggle traditions

[ewdotson]

No: HPFGUIDX 60586

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, MadameSSnape at a... wrote:
> In a message dated 6/16/2003 1:54:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> mangankat at a... writes:
> > > Christmas and Easter are not muggle holiday's, they are 
christian 
> > holiday's, at least, that's the impression I'm under...
> > That just open's a can of worms, that I'm sure has been discussed 
at 
> > nausium. I need to do more research, but think in J.K.R's world, 
> > perhaps one can be both.
> > 
> 
> Christmas & Easter go back a great deal earlier than Christianity - 
to Yule & 
> Ostara, from which a lot of the traditions & symbols of the 
Christian 
> holidays have been taken - trees, lights, rabbits, &c.  In the 
Muggle world - at 
> least here in America - both holidays have become so secularized 
that they can 
> hardly be classified as "holy days" any longer.  (And there are 
those who "do 
> both" in the real world, as well - as a Pagan from a Christian 
family, I'm one of 
> them.  I do Yule with my coven, Christmas with my family.)
> 

To be honest, I'm not entirely convinced that Hogwart's celebrating 
Christmas and Easter can't be atrribuatble to their Christian 
nature.  Now, I'm well aware of Christmas' ties to innumerable pagan 
holidays, from Yule to Saturnalia.  I'm well aware of Eostre of the 
Dawn and her springtime celebration.  And I'm well aware of modern 
Britain's decline in church-going Christianity, etc. 

The thing is, Hogwarts is neither ancient nor modern.  Rather, it 
goes back about a thousand years, and has been cheerfully admitting 
non-wizarding family children since its inception.  Now, while I'd be 
less than shocked if some of the true pure-blood families still even 
follow the old school pagan religeons, I'd ask the nay-sayers to 
consider the case of Joe English Peasant, born in the early 12th 
century who is sitting down for dinner one night.  He hears a knock 
on the door to his cottage.  He opens it up, and sees a well-dressed 
stranger who he's never met before.  "Evenin' m'lord.  Kin ah help 
yoo?"  "Yes, I'm here to invite your youngest son to attend the 
Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Magic."  So, does Joe Peasant 
reply that that sounds great, he was never a big fan of the whole 
church thing anyways, or does he reply with something along the lines 
of "Yoo'll stay away from me son, yeh child of Satan, yoo!"  Frankly, 
I'd expect the person delivering the letter to quickly assure Joe 
that wizarding was not religeous in nature, and that many wizards 
were good, God-fearing Catholics.  (Or God-fearing Anglicans, later 
on.)  If we're to take Ron's statement that the most wizards were 
half-bloods, I see no reason to disbelieve that within a few 
centuries after its founding, a majority of attendees could be 
Christian and that the school adopted the holidays and observances in 
light of this fact.  

This is in no way to suggest that Hogwart's today is anything other 
that a reflection of modern day Britain.  I would fully expect that 
if Hogwart's has a chapel stuck somewhere in it's recesses, it would 
have seen its better, more used days.  Basically, I would just expect 
the school's makeup to be fairly comparable to Britain's as a whole, 
both now and back when practically everyone was a regular church-
goer.  And that its holidays would reflect it's several hundred years 
as such.

"ewdotson"