Religion in the Wizarding World. (Was: Re: Halloween Toasts)

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 191415

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Philip Whitehouse <philip at ...> wrote:

Geoff:
> > This is US English raising its head again.....
> > 
> > In HBP, Harry meets up with Draco in a "boys' bathroom". To a 
> > British person, a "bathroom" is a "bathroom" is a "bathroom". We 
> > never refer to toilets as bathrooms. The most common usage, 
> > which has crept into informal speak in the last few decades is "loo"; 
> > in more polite society "toilet". Lavatory has rather dropped out of 
> > regular usage. In my house, we have a ground floor loo and on the 
> > first floor we have a bathroom which also contains a loo.

Philip: (not originally attributed)
> Being British, I would contend that given the movie depiction, Hermione was certainly crying in one in CoS, which makes far more sense than an actual bathroom when you compare the behaviour in real life. The only 'bathroom' mentioned is the prefect's one - I seem to remember showers being mentioned in reference to Quidditch practices. So that takes care of that.
> 
> Moving away from metaphors and avoiding search the entire series for mention of carrots, 

Geoff:
Yes, but that is the **film** depiction.

For a school or college, there have to be communal showers and baths. 
You can't have everyone queueing up to use the Quidditch showers or 
sharing a single bathroom on each floor.... With the exception of the 
prefect's bathroom, the films always seem to interpret "bathroom" as 
a toilets, equipped only with sinks and WCs.

In passing, the carrots reference did have a smiley.
:-<