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HPfGU Message #34296:
Devout Students at Hogwarts


Judy wrote:

So, what do we know about religion in general in the Potterverse? We know that Christmas is celebrated at Hogwarts. And, there is an Easter break. And, we never see students complain that their religion is being left out.

Oh, well. There are lots of things that we never see about Hogwarts, but that I think we can feel free to deduce do indeed go on behind the scenes. We only see the story from Harry's POV, after all, and Harry is hardly an aspiring journalist. Curiosity is not one of his personal strengths. Neither is observation.

All that we can really deduce from Harry's POV, IMO, is that there are no students in Harry's own circle of Gryffyndor friends who object to Hogwarts' Christian culture. For all we know, there's that one kid in Ravenclaw who complains constantly about it, and circulates petitions every year objecting to the school's insistence on decking the halls with boughs of holly at Yuletide, and badgers all of his friends into wearing the badges he whips up in the library, and takes no end of flack from the Slyths about this eccentricity during their shared Herbology class...

But that kid's not cute or pretty, like Cho Chang, and it has nothing to do with Quiddich or Voldemort or any of Harry's friends. So he just never noticed it.

(Hermione, OTOH, does know all about it, as the boy in question was the one who taught her how to make those SPEW badges. But since it's never come up in conversation, she's never bothered to mention it to Harry.)

What does this tell us? Well, I'd guess that there are no practicing Jews or Muslims at Hogwarts. I just don't see what they'd eat.

I feel convinced that a school willing to make special arrangements for a werewolf would manage, somehow, to accomodate unusual dietary restrictions. Real world boarding schools do so, and so do summer camps—and they don't even have magic to help them out.

So Dumbledore just goes down to the kitchens and explains matters to the House Elves, and they conjure up separate stoves and ovens and dishes and the like for the kosher students, and the Elves are thrilled to death to be given such a nice heavy load of extra complication to their work, and when the food all gets magicked up onto the tables, the kids with the special dietary restrictions get their special food on individual plates at their seats. And when the regular dinner is Shepherd's Pie yet again, all of the other kids at their table are madly jealous of them. Just like on airlines. ;)

Again, I don't think that just because something doesn't bludgeon its way into either Harry's field of notice or the author's list of Things the Reader Must Be Shown, we should necessarily assume that they are excluded from the realm of possibility. The narrative just isn't concerning itself with such matters.

And, I think Muslims would have a hard time with the course schedule; when would they pray? Jews, Muslims, and people of other non-Christian faiths might have a hard time with classes being held on their holidays, too.

Just as in real schools, I imagine that special dispensation is offered to those students devout enough to request it. The devout Muslims are allowed to slip quietly out of class to say their prayers, and groups of devout Christians and Jews get ferried off to their respective houses of worship once a week.

At any rate, that's how things get done in many boarding schools here in the US. And really, if you aren't close friends with any of the religious students yourself, and if you are not by nature terribly observant (I am not), then it is quite possible to go for literally years before you realize that the reason So-and-so is never around on Sunday mornings is because she gets taken off to morning services by a designated member of the staff every week. Embarrassing, yes. But quite possible.

On the other hand, we don't see any Christian students praying, either. There is no mention of a chapel, as far as I recall. So, my best guess is that Hogwarts is made up almost entirely of cultural Christians, but few if any of them are very observant.

Thus reflecting fairly well the Muggle society it parallels, no?

—Elkins


Posted to HPfGU by Elkins on January 29, 2002 10:31 PM


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