Godfathers and Gravestones.... (was Re: Magical Latin)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186118

Ken wrote:
> But Geoff  IIRC the message on the grave didn’t mean anything to Harry. Which implies that he was unaware that he was looking at Christian writing presumably because he had no background in Christianity.

> I also agree with No.[Limburger] that the various Christian holidays are much younger than those of the early celts and could be considered as being usurped by Christians for, essentially, propaganda purposes.

Carol responds:
Harry's lack of awareness of biblical quotations and their significance has nothing to do with the WW per se. It merely indicates that the Dursleys (who reared him, at least nominally) are secular Muggles who probably don't go to church. They do, however, celebrate Christmas, if only as another way of indulging Dudley and showing Harry his insignificance (in their view) by giving him a tissue or a toothpick. If they were not at least nominally Christian (like most of the English) they'd choose some other holiday, such as Hanukkah, to serve this purpose. 

As for the Christian legacy of Europe, to deny it is to deny history. Certainly, the missionaries incorporated pagan elements into their holidays to persuade the pagans to convert, but a century later, those formerly pagan tribes were firm in their Christianity. Roman Catholicism was the unifying element in European culture at the time of the founding of Hogwarts and for many centuries afterward. It's only in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that Europeans (and Americans) have begun denying their Christian heritage. Had JKR set the stories in the nineteenth century or earlier, she would probably have included a chapel as part of the setting. (Geoff can tell use whether Eton and other public [private] schools in England still have them today.)

Ken:
> I am unsure what role Godparents fill in the wizarding world but you are surely aware that they are used in UK today by non-Christians and in many other cultures. It implies, to me, not so much a devotion to God, as to their parents best friend.

Carol responds:
The tradition of godparents in England is Christian in its origins and relates to baptism. It does seem, however, as if it's become secularized in the WW. Lupin simply names Harry as Teddy's godfather without any ceremony, religious or otherwise, being involved. Possibly, if they hadn't all been hiding from Voldemort at the time and life in the WW had been normal, the matter would have been handled differently.

I think, personally, that JKR avoided making the WW overtly Christian (despite the open and lavish celebration of Christmas rather than "the holidays") to avoid controversy. Possibly, she didn't want anyone to feel that she was "imposing" religion on her readers, or she wanted the British WW to reflect the secularization of modern Muggle England. But there's no escaping those Bible verses, placed by Dumbledore on the graves of his mother and sister and of the Potters, or the church-attending citizens of Godric's Hollow, a town that includes Witches and Wizards as well as Muggles among its residents.

Anyone who is European or has European ancestors (mine are mostly English) owes a great debt to our Judeo-Christian heritage, as we do also to the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome (and to a lesser degree to the various Celtic and Germanic cultures). And the WW, which was part of Christendom/Europe until 1692 and still incorporates Muggle elements via Muggle-borns and Half-Bloods, owes the same cultural debts (as we see in part from the mostly Latin spells and the celebration of Christian holidays, however secularized they may be). Little things like Mr. Weasley's "bless them" with regard to Muggles also show this heritage. 

Why deny it? That heritage (modified by scientific knowledge and eighteenth-century political philosophy) is how we (meaning European and American Muggles, as well as any others with a European heritage) came to be who we are, and it would apply at least equally to the WW, which (Mr. Weasley and Charity Burbage aside) would be largely unimpressed by modern Muggle science and technology (Wizarding wireless and Slughorn's odd knowledge of genes to the contrary).

Carol, who suspects that most European Wizards and Witches considered themselves part of Christendom even after Muggles started burning them though they might have translated "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" rather differently than the Muggles did