Christmas & Harry Potter...

[Sherry]

No: HPFGUIDX 143707

> Christina:
> 
> As for the celebration of Christmas, I have a feeling it is celebrated
> in the wizarding world as a cultural/commercial holiday rather than a
> religious one.  

Amontillada:
I agree. Like you, I don't know anything about the cultural/public
atmosphere of the Christmas season in the UK. But I do know that
British (and hence Anglo-American) traditions of the Christmas seasons
developed from Midwinter traditions as well as Christian religious
observations.  Many aspects of the Christmas festival in the Potter
books are part of this midwinter tradition--the feast, for example.

Christina: 
> Although, doesn't Sirius sing, "God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs" when he
> hears that he'll have company for Christmas?  It really makes one
> wonder if it's just a little funny parody that Sirius made up, or if
> it was an actual song.

Amontillada:
Perhaps somehing that he heard during his youth; or, as you speculate,
it might be his own parody to the traditional English carol "God Rest
Ye Merry Gentlemen." If nothing else, he might have overheard some
Muggles singing that as they walked through Grimmauld Place (not
seeing the Black house, of course).

In any case, this detail is important simply as a sign of how much
Sirius has cheered up when Harry and the Weazleys decide to stay with
him over Christmas.

Sherry