[HPforGrownups] Re: Wizards and Muggle traditions
Pen Robinson
pen at pensnest.co.uk
Tue Jun 17 09:42:37 UTC 2003
No: HPFGUIDX 60697
On Monday, Jun 16, 2003, at 21:51 Europe/London, yellows at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 6/16/2003 1:06:36 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> Elizabeth writes:
>
>> I don't see why wizards can't be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, or
>> anything
>> else. I don't think one cancels out the other. Perhaps J.K. Rowling
>> doesn't go
>> into spirituality a lot because she wants the story to be
>> as universal as
>> possible.
>
> Well, I agree that wizards can likely be any religion they fancy and
> it won't matter to anyone. But, in fact, canon seems to suggest
> something different. There's no mention of other religions, and the
> kids all seem to take it for granted that everyone celebrates
> Christmas.
>
It may be worth pointing out that 'celebrates Christmas' in the context
of the HP books means 'exchanges presents and has a festive dinner'.
(This is, incidentally, what my entirely secular household does too.)
There is no mention of any religious element in the Christmas
festivities. None.
I imagine the kids take it for granted that 'everyone celebrates
Christmas' because, in the UK, the country virtually shuts down for the
Christmas season. Television output is designed on the assumption
that everyone is so stuffed with turkey that they cannot move, and will
want to veg mindlessly in front of the TV all the time.
There are, to be sure, church services, the most popular of which is
the midnight-on-Christmas-Eve carol service, but for a large part (I
expect, the majority) of the populace these are irrelevant. Yes, we
know that Christmas is derived from the celebration of the birth of
Jesus: however, mostly, we don't much care. Modern-day Christmas is
an excuse for a holiday, with the added stress of having to buy the
perfect gift for everyone, and having to see one's family...
My Jewish friend next-door celebrates Christmas in much the same way we
do - exchanging gifts, sending out cards, having family round/visiting
family, feasting. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that British
Hindus and Moslems participate in the same kinds of activity, given
that their kids would feel pretty hard done by if they didn't - perhaps
they do, perhaps they don't. Either way, their children have
'Christmas holidays' from school, just like the nominally Christian
children do, because the schools all close for two weeks in the middle
of winter. In this context, 'Christmas holidays' could be a synonym
for 'Winter holidays'. In the same way, the schools close for two
weeks at Easter, ie the Easter holidays. The national shut-down is not
on the same scale as Christmas, with its tradition of eating yourself
silly, but there is the Easter Monday Bank Holiday. Churches ought to
be full, but for most of us, the Christian aspect of Easter is
irrelevant and we provide eggs simply because supplying vast quantities
of chocolate is required by tradition.
As far as I can recall we have not seen any evidence of the wizards'
*religion* anywhere in any of the books.
Christmas (and Easter) are not evidence of Christianity, in the UK.
Similarly, having a 'godfather' is not evidence of devout belief. Lots
of people get their children christened because (a) it's a nice
occasion and (b) it honours particular friends of the parents.
Pen
<who only intended to write the first paragraph, really>
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