OotP - feeling just a bit resentful...

[ewdotson]

No: HPFGUIDX 61708

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Renee Daniels" <Calimora at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> The Veil: otherwise know as the Veil Between the Worlds, the thing 
> that separates life from death. Traditionaly, it can be crossed on 
> Holloween.

Ohh, now THIS is interesting.  Doing a quick Google search, I come up 
with:

[Halloween is]A time when the veil between this world and the next 
was at its thinnest. The Celts believed that upon death, everyone 
went to a beautiful place free of hunger, pain and disease. It was 
called "Tir nan Og", sometimes translated as "Summerland". They had 
no concept of Heaven and Hell like that seen in Christianity. Many 
believed that two separate and nearly identical worlds existed. When 
a person died, they were transferred to the "ghostworld"; when they 
were born, they were transferred from the ghostworld to the mortal 
one. "The pagan idea used to be that crucial joints between the 
seasons opened cracks in the fabric of space-time, allowing contact 
between the ghostworld and the mortal one." 2 The Celts celebrated 
rituals at this time to make contact with their ancestors who had 
died before them. This contact was not made in an atmosphere of 
dread, fearing some retribution from the dead. Rather it was done in 
a spirit of expectation, in the hopes of obtaining guidance from 
those in the next world. "The spirits of dead friends sought the 
warmth of the Samhain fire and communion with their living kin." 3 

(http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_np.htm)

Thinking about it, even in the Christian mythos, Halloween is All 
Soul's Day.  Until I'd read this, I'd assumed the only way that we'd 
ever see Sirius again would be if Harry bought it at the end of book 
7.  Now I'm not so certain.

ewdotson