Christmas & Harry Potter...

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 143719

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.

Ceridwen:
I think I'll have to go along with the suggestion at the Red Hen 
site.  The WW has closed itself off from the Muggle world for no more 
than a few hundred years, not a long time in a society where 
Dumbledore lives to be nearly 160, and one of the people who tested 
him in his O.W.L.s is still testing students.  Before the split, they 
probably shared certain cultural things in common with their Muggle 
neighbors, including religion...  Well, as long as the religion 
wasn't making witches and wizards the enemy du jour.  I'd expect that 
it's the same in every country, region and culture where the WW 
exists.  Someone else said the same thing, so at least I don't feel 
lonely!  Once the WW has closed itself culturally from the Muggle 
world, then perhaps other traditions have developed.

Christina: 
> > Although, doesn't Sirius sing, "God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs"
> > when he hears that he'll have company for Christmas?

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).

Ceridwen:
Recently, fun has been poked at a church in Wales which has replaced 
the word 'Gentlemen' with the word 'Persons' (or was it 'People'?).  
Most reports I heard and read said the song is five hundred years 
old.  If so, it was probably around before the Acts of Secrecy, or 
newly out around that time, and could have come into the WW as they 
seperated from their Muggle neighbors.  For sure, the song was out in 
1770, when it appeared in a collection of Christmas songs - link to 
info: 
http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Car
ols/god_rest_you_merry_notes.htm

Ceridwen, who likes that carol, it's fun to sing.