Christmas

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 167204

Barry:
> 1. Would witches and wizards celebrate Christmas? Wouldn't they have
their own (more ancient?) holidays?

Sherrie:

> Some may be Witches in the real world sense - Pagans; others are 
Christians, Jews, Hindus... There may be a slightly greater 
percentage of Pagans, if many of the old pureblood families stuck 
with the Old Ways. But surely the centuries-long influx of 
Muggleborns into the Wizarding World has brought a conglomeration of 
religions, in similar proportions to that in Britain as a whole?

Ceri (dwen):
(Hey, had to rhyme! ;) )

To add to Sherrie's information:
The WW passed the Acts of Seclusion in 1692.  Before then, it seems 
that witches and wizards mingled with Muggles, though they may not 
have wanted to by this point.  The translation of the Bible into the 
common tongue, with its admonishments against witches, would have 
made life and interaction difficult - the King James Version of the 
Bible was first published in 1611.

Christianity was the majority religion in western countries, and a 
religion in some eastern Mediterranean countries by this time, too.  
Witches and wizards would have also been Christians, at least 
nominally.

And, they would have been Hindu, Moslem, Confucian, etc. in their 
home countries, at least nominally.  They were not always separated 
from Muggle society.

Midwinter has always had a significance.  It is the darkest point of 
the year, and the people will hold out hope for better weather, new 
crops, new births in the human and animal population, so changing 
from an older belief system regarding the time of year would be 
fairly simple.  As Sherrie said, Christian feasts were identified 
with older Pagan beliefs and, as Christianity grew as a religion, the 
Christian traditions supplanted the older beliefs.  This took place a 
millenium before the Acts of Seclusion.

If any of the older Pureblood families stuck to the Old Ways, I think 
they would have done so in private and courted favor of their 
governments, which to some degree were all bound up with religion, in 
order to maintain position and prestige.  I can see Lucius Malfoy 
behaving this way, based on his Imperius defense, so I can also see 
his ancestors, and others, doing the same, especially during the 
Crusade years and the purges which culminated in the Inquisition and 
the various witch trials in Europe and America.  The point is to 
survive.

Since the modern-day celebration of Christmas as more than a 
religious observance (Christ's Mass) is much younger than the 1692 
date, then the influx of Muggle-borns, and the occasional marraige to 
a Muggle, would introduce the newer traditions.  Muggleborn children, 
and children of mixed Wizarding/Muggle marriages, would be used to 
the celebration, and pass it on to their children.  At some point, 
most or at least very many witches and wizards would celebrate like 
the Muggles, and it would pass into Wizarding tradition.  The same 
would be true of other familiar holidays, and would also be true in 
the holidays of various religions around the world.

Ceridwen.