title discussion - spoiler alert!

[Schlobin at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 163052

Whoa....frankly the title scares me. Perhaps I have dived into the river of  
denial. I refuse to consider that Harry might in fact die (if he does I'm sure 
 it will be in order to destroy Voldemort). I remember asking my 9 and 7 year 
old  if they thought Harry would die, and my 9 year old son said "No way! She 
 wouldn't do that!" (She is referring to J.K. Rowling).
 
I am familiar with the pagan/ancient meaning of Hallows, which of course  
does refer to Samhain, the time when the veil between the worlds is the  
thinnest...I would not rule OUT communication between Sirius and Harry, or for  that 
matter between Harry and Professor Dumbledore -- Lily and James, although  
dead, communicated to Harry at the end of the Goblet of Fire -- giving him  useful 
advice, and in fact helping him.
In pagan/wiccan traditions, of  course, All Hallows Eve is also the time when 
the god is conceived, when we  honor our ancestors, the harvest is gathered, 
the fields lie fallow...the gates  of life and death are opened....
 
However, J.K. Rowling is not a pagan or a witch, and I think it would be  
most helpful to look at the British Isles tradition of the Hallows...
 
Look at this etymological definition that the Hallows is a spell of warm  
weather after the first frost, what we here in the U.S.A. often call Indian  
Summer... 
first recorded 1778, Amer.Eng., perhaps so called because it was  first noted 
in regions inhabited by Indians, or because the Indians first  described it 
to the Europeans. No evidence connects it with the color of fall  leaves or a 
season of Indian attacks on settlements. It is the Amer.Eng. version  of 
British All-Hallows summer, Fr. été de la Saint-Martin (feast day Nov. 11),  etc. 
Also colloquial was St. Luke's summer (or little summer), period of warm  
weather occurring about St. Luke's day (Oct. 18).
 
Hmmmm...well that doesn't give us many clues......
 
Hallows IS considered the time when the dead are remembered, feasted, and  
communicated with...
and there is also the idea that if an acceptable  sacrifice is made, the 
forces of evil would be contained.
 
Well, I'm ready to sacrifice Snape.
 
Susan McGee
(Harry Potter for Grownups Over Forty listserve, contact me  at 
_SusanGSMcGee at aol.com_ (mailto:SusanGSMcGee at aol.com) )
 




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