Wizarding Christmas and Similar Terminology

[wintercreek]

Another worldbuilding question:

Is Christmas (and, by extension, Christianity) a Wizarding thing, a Muggle thing, or some combination of the two? If Jesus is considered to be a wizard, was he always a wizard, or has there been a historical rewrite? Or is the whole thing glossed over as not religious but cultural, which perhaps has not-to-be-discussed roots in Muggle history?

It seems to be acceptable for wizards to reference and swear by Jesus - alt_mcgonagall's Oh Christ Jesus on Halloween's Grim Truth, which prompted an alt_fen discussion with an alt_player. It looks from that discussion as though general mention of Jesus in a "language developed in a predominantly Christian culture" kind of way is acceptable, but worship or belief in Christianity wouldn't be.

We have a few mentions of Christmas and the Christmas season, holiday parties, and so forth. More recently alt_sirius gives us a passage in the latest Grim Truth that reads

And this time of year is perfect for it. The season of Christmas is approaching, and I see from much of your writing that you are all preparing for the pleasantries as your means permit. But amid the bustle, I ask you to pause and think about the things they would rather you not consider. I ask you to pause in your scurrying about laying in the pudding and the goose and the presents, and think about the true lessons and spirit of the festival. It’s not just a time to gather our loved ones and neighbours to us. It’s not just about our gifts to our own, but the affirmation of generosity and graciousness to all—and that includes halfbloods, Muggle-borns and Muggles alongside ‘purebloods.’ ... Especially in this season, the time of year when tradition encourages us to remember those less fortunate, to give to loved ones and neighbours, do not allow the lies to cloud the Grim Truth.

So perhaps this is another case like McG's mention of Jesus - more cultural than religious, with Sirius invoking a general sense of "peace on Earth, goodwill to all" without carrying the religious tradition with it?

I'm wondering if this is a case where my Americanism makes it hard for me to read this properly - the US is awfully sensitized to invocations of specific religious traditions and inclined toward replacing those invocations with nonspecific terms. Hence "Winter Break" and not "Christmas Break/Hols," "Spring Break" and not "Easter Hols." If Christmas is the generic term for the winter holiday season in British culture (and please tell me if I'm reading that right!), then it seems like Christian terminology in that regard is not only nonthreatening to the LP's regime but also too much trouble to change.

Are there wizards who follow religious traditions, or is that solely a Muggle thing? Were there wizards who formerly followed Muggle-based religions and can't do so (openly) any longer? Has Jesus been retconned to be a wizard, as I think we saw done earlier with Muggle musicians? (Reference for that, anyone?)

Comments

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

Early in the game we got descriptions from Sally Anne and Neville of Muggle cities/towns with derelict churches/cathedrals now fallen into ruin (http://alt-hermione.livejournal.com/4327.html?thread=19943#t19943). It's in the comments thread to Hermione's word of the day post about "numinous." They don't talk as though they know much about church-going or Christianity. I conclude that's Muggle superstition. Sally Anne says:

I've been in a church. There was an abandoned muggle village near my home and it had an old church. There were a bunch of squirrels that lived in it. I used to go there to look at the sun shine through the big window of coloured bits glass at one end, because it was pretty, but then there was a really bad storm and the window got broken. After that the squirrels moved because the wind just blew right through and it wasn't a very good shelter anymore. So if numinous is the feeling of going into a church, maybe it means sad?

For his part, Neville's been in Lincoln cathedral, which was also ruinous but still had some nice stained glass.

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

Regarding school terms, while some schools -- especially those run by local governments (what in the US would be termed "public schools") -- have gone to more evenly divided and more secularly named terms, British public schools (the exclusive, expensive kind) and Oxford/Cambridge universities have terms named for Christian liturgical seasons: the secondary schools may break into two terms, Advent (Autumn) and Lent (Spring) (http://www.rugbyschool.net/admissions/opendays.php?o=8); the universities have three terms, Michaelmas, Hilary, Trinity. Both kinds of school have Christmas and Easter holidays (http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/university_year/dates_of_term.html). Obviously there are Christian roots for this nomenclature, but the terminology has been archaic for a long time; even the Muggle UK is a secular, post-Christian place.

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

The books (Beedle included) make it clear that religion has nothing to do with magic, but also that wizards are as likely to be culturally Christian as not. And the UK and the US both share a particularly Christo-centric cultural assumption - that is, most everyone is assumed to be (ethnically, culturally) Christian until shown otherwise. So while there are exceptions (Anthony Goldstein, the Patils, a few others), I think even wizards are inclined to approach an assumed Christian point of view. (In the books, Draco invokes the lord a few times, but always as an invective, not as a religious expression. So even purebloods in canon have a monotheistic bias.)

That said, it's true that almost everything portrayed in canon is more post-Christian than overtly Christian (up until "Deathly Hallows," anyway).

[amethistdolphin.livejournal.com]

I don't know if Im completely of track here, but according to the new 'Tales of Beedle the Bard" publication, and I imagine new canon, the secrecy happened in a time when Christianity would have been pretty strong( I don't have the book with me right now, but I seem to remember there is a date there for when it was decided that they would go into secrecy). That said, wouldn't it have in some way affected the customs of the Wizarding world? if that is so, wouldn't it affect things like exclamations, interjections, holidays and the like?

I guess that is just my take on it, there are soo many religious, cultural and personal aspects that would affect how each person and culture sees the holidays....

[brimtoast.livejournal.com]

That said, wouldn't it have in some way affected the customs of the Wizarding world? if that is so, wouldn't it affect things like exclamations, interjections, holidays and the like?

I imagine that it would, but we also should remember that the secrecy was somewhat one-sided. While most Muggles haven't had any contact with the Wizarding world since the Statute of Secrecy was passed, Wizards have had pretty constant access to information about the Muggle world through the stream of Muggleborn wizards entering their culture. It's probably not in-depth information, or else Arthur Weasley wouldn't talk about "eckeltricity," but it's not total 100% isolation, either.

In fact, it strikes me as a bit surprising that there's not *more* crossover of knowledge. It must be because most wizards aren't interested, since if they were then the information would be readily available to them (by asking Muggleborns). Arthur Weasley is seen as pretty eccentric for being interested in Muggle devices, right? So the extent to which Wizard society is stuck in the past (or at least, resembles past Muggle society more than current Muggle society) with its expressions and customs and so on would be due to either a sense of tradition, or an assumption that things in the Muggle world would seem boring or silly or otherwise uninteresting to Wizards.

Even the Muggle studies class at Hogwarts, based on the info at HP Lexicon (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/hogwarts/classes/muggle-studies-class.html), does not seem very popular or in-depth. Hermione, a Muggleborn already, is the only Gryffindor in her year who takes it. And Percy says it's a "soft option"—an easy class. It's stated to be important for people who want to work in Muggle relations, which might imply that the only reason you'd want to know about how Muggles live is to better understand how to interact with them, rather than because their culture has some interesting (artistic, political, etc.) thoughts or ideas that you might want to explore. Again, it kind of seems like wizards, though they're not necessarily being snobbish or elitist on purpose, just have the unconscious assumption that the Muggle world is really uninteresting and not worth their time.

But like I said, I imagine some crossover from Muggle to Wizard culture does happen. It's probably mostly in things like figures of speech, that can spread through a group without anybody really intending or noticing it. Or certain deeply-ingrained beliefs that Muggleborns might not realize were specific to Muggle culture and that then might catch on with their young Wizarding peers. Would beliefs about the meaning of Christmas (without the religious stuff, which Muggles might censor because maybe that part is more obviously something that Wizards don't share) be an example of that?

Anyway, I'm just sort of working through some thoughts that your comments inspired. It keeps coming back to the connections between the Muggle and Wizard worlds (or possible lack thereof) lately, doesn't it?

[amethistdolphin.livejournal.com]

Ah, but that is part of the fun isn't it? how much time we spend considering how something like this would happen? I think this is why I like it in a way, just like hpalternity, scary how at least for me, a lot of the stuff that is going on makes sense. I mean, it is awful, but I can totally see it happening.

about your comment, if as you said, their 'connection' to the muggle world is ..dated, it makes even more sense that the yule holidays be as they are shown, since back then they did have a mix of the Christian Holiday with the more pagan aspects of it.

And yes, its very much about the connection... I would imagine that in a situation like the one we are seeing here, it would make muggles non existent or the more interesting. Maybe the Lord Protector shouldn't work so hard to keep them... 'uninportant' =P