[HPforGrownups] Christmas

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 167205

Barry:
> I've just been rereading HP and the Order of the Phoenix. There's a
> chapter where the Weasleys and Sirius are celebrating Christmas. Two
> things struck me.
> 1. Would witches and wizards celebrate Christmas? Wouldn't they have
> their own (more ancient?) holidays?
> 2. Mr Weasley, in particular, delights in Muggles' devices because he
> seems so cut off from the muggles' world. Would he even know about
> Christmas? Or he'd know about it in much the same way as the average
> Christian knows about Passover.

Magpie:
Christianity exists in the Wizard World the same way it exists in our world, 
since they do celebrate Christmas and Easter pretty much the way we do. They 
also have a Friar ghost, indicating religious orders like our own, and Saint 
Mungo's, which is also indicates standard Christian history. Presumably they 
were Pagan like the rest of Europe at one time, but their history seems to 
follow Muggle history on that score. They also say "God" and not "Gods" or 
"Merlin" exclusively, as some people sometimes think.

I mean, one might also ask why Wizards have countries the same as Muggles 
do, following our borders, if they're their own world. But the seem to have 
that too. Whatever they claim about being cut off, and whatever Arthur's 
ignorance, they seem to always be a section of whatever society in which 
they live, and not really a world totally of their own.

-m