graduation and respect for British culture

[gav_fiji]

No: HPFGUIDX 188349

> Catlady:
> ... Hogwarts is a unique institution. It was founded at
> a time when there were no universities in Britain or 
> Western Europe, 

Goddlefrood:

Well, the French and Italians might dispute that. Perhaps 
some on the Iberian peninsula too. It's only a minor quibble 
the main answer will follow soon enough.

> Catlady
> Hogwarts must have awarded its own qualifications (degrees,
> diplomas) for the centuries before OWLs and NEWTs were 
> invented, so it may have had graduation and degree-granting 
> ceremonies before universities did.

Goddlefrood:

Possibly, although based on what is in the books it is very 
difficult to say with any certainty. There have been many 
interesting theories over the years about what Hogwarts was 
and how it developed. It may have simply been a place for 
keeping the young wizard about town off the street and away 
from Muggles for a good part of its existence. There aren't 
all that many wizards altogether now, and there would have 
been fewer and fewer the longer back one goes.

To illustrate - it has been worked out that the population 
of England at the time Lawrence Sterne wrote The Life and 
Opinions of Tristram Shandy was about 8 million. Today the 
population of England has reached about 55 million. That's 
a nine fold increase, or thereabouts. Extrapolating backward 
to the mid-eighteenth century would lead to a reasonable 
conclusion that the student body of Hogwarts at that time 
might have been around a hundred.

Going back earlier would suggest that Hogwarts might have 
started out with only a handful of students. The fewer the 
number of students as one progresses back through the 
centuries, the less likelihood that any formal qualification 
at all was given to witches and wizards, who would have been 
in short enough supply that anything they might turn their 
hand to would have few practitioners in it.

A graduation ceremony for a handful of students would be unlikely, 
possible, but unlikely. The wizarding world of the UK is similar 
enough to the Muggle world of the UK to suggest that any traditions 
of one would be adopted by, or at least influence, the other. Due 
to that, coupled with a zero mention of any graduation in the books, 
I would find it extraordinarily unlikely that Hogwarts has any kind 
of graduation ceremony. Although Napoleon and Sherlock may differ.

> Brian: 
> There is no reason whatsoever to suggest that Hogwarts has a 
> graduation.

Goddlefrood:

There's certainly nothing to go on. However, to suggest cultural imperialism for our cousins across the pond (for me a slightly 
bigger one than the Atlantic) or up the peninsula, is a little 
hard to fathom for this former denizen of the benighted isles.

Toodle pip