Christian or post-Christian elements of the WW (Was: Puzzlement of the day)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166312

Shelley wrote:
> As for religion, isn't there hints of it? At Christmastime, Sirius
was singing "God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriff", and the fact that they
celebrated Christmas at all (and not Yule, or Winter Solstice) tells
me that they must have a "Christ" to celebrate his birth, or a Santa
Clause to get the idea of sending presents. I don't think that
religion is all that different between Muggles and Wizards, except
that the Wizards probably don't attend the same churches, unless the
Wizards are willing mix in and blend with the Muggles. One of the
ghosts was the Fat Friar- meaning that it could even be a profession
for the Wizard, eh? It seems a lot of the traditions are the  same,
just celebrated "wizard style" in the Wizarding world.

Carol responds:
Without getting overly involved in the history of Christmas as
celebrated in the British Isles and that sort of thing, I agree that
the WW in the 1990s appears to be a secularized Christian society,
complete with chocolate Easter eggs, Christmas trees (and presents and
carols), and even Father Christmas (the British equivalent of Santa
Claus) and his reindeer as a decoration at the Yule ball, and mild
oaths like "good lord." In addition to the Fat Friar, a ghost who
presumably dates from the medieval period, there's a portrait of four
monks, IIRc (no nuns, though). All of these appear to me to be
vestiges of a time when the WW and the Muggle world were more closely
associated than they are now (and both England and Scotland were and
are Christian countries, complete with a state church). Christmas
trees were brought to England by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen
Victoria, and were perhaps incorporated into Hogwarts tradition by a
Muggleborn or Half-Blood headmaster or -mistress.

Although certain traditions associated with Christian holidays
(evergreens at Christmas, eggs at Easter) incorporate pagan elements,
now so secularized that Easter and Christmas can be celebrated without
any reference to Christianity at all (compare the commericialization
in the U.S. and the influence of political correctness, which has made
Christmas into a generic holiday with "holiday trees" and "holiday
cards"), I see no evidence of any institutionalized religion other
than Christianity at Hogwarts. (There's the name Anthony Goldstein,
which sounds Jewish, but no indication that Anthony celebrates
Hanukkah or objects to the Christmas decorations.)

I have a feeling that if the HP books were set in the 1890s rather
than the 1990s, the students would attend chapel on Sundays as a
matter of course. The monks, the Fat Friar, the Christmas carols
(rather cavalierly treated by "godfather" Sirius and Peeves), and all
the rest reflect a British WW that was once as Christian as the Muggle
world around it and is now just as secularized, with Christmas reduced
to feasting, decorations, and piles of presents at the foot of the
bed. Dumbledore's memorial service is equally secularized, devoted to
his life rather than his future existence in "the next great
adventure" and with no mention of the eternal life of the soul (which
is nonetheless hinted at in the books). Exactly where baptism and
godfathers fit in is hard to say, but in Christian tradition,
godfathers are spiritual guides, not prospective guardians if the
godchild's parents die.

I think that JKR, herself a Christian but also a political liberal,
has made the WW as Christian as she dares to make it without offending
the sensibilities of postmodern readers, with the Veil, the Phoenix,
the yew and holly wands, and other vestiges of pagan traditions to
give the religious or supernatural elements universal significance.

Carol, a lapsed Episcopalian who does find "holiday trees" annoying
but is not passing judgment one way or another on the secularized
Christianity that she sees in the WW