City in England Cancels Christmas in Favor of Potter Holiday.

Catholic World News ^ | 11/5/01

[marshmallow]

LONDON, Nov 5, 01 (CWNews.com) - Residents of Luton, England, will not be able to celebrate Christmas this year. Instead, the town's official ceremonies will be re-branded "Luminos," a word taken from the wildly popular line of Harry Potter books.

In it's attempts to be all-inclusive, the town on the outskirts of London has been accused of "politically correct paranoia" by both Christian and Muslim groups. Iain Bainbridge, a spokesman for the Christian Institute, described the approach as a "ridiculous overreaction."

"It is not so much an agenda of sensitivity to other faiths as a secular agenda," he told The Times. "In areas where you have large numbers of a certain ethnic group it is quite normal for specifically religious celebrations to be accepted."

He continued, "It is political correctness gone mad. In a country with a strong Christian heritage and a predominantly Christian constitution it is crazy not to have this manifest at Christmas. We are renowned as a country of religious tolerance but it now appears as if the Christian faith is respected the least."

Akhbar Dad Khan, the former general secretary of Luton's Islamic Cultural Society and an interfaith spokesman for the Islamic community, said the Christian complaint was entirely understandable. "All people from all faiths recognize and appreciate each other," he said. "We do live in a predominantly Christian society and people from other faiths have accepted that. Each faith has its own characteristics and the celebration of any particular faith would not offend anyone else. We are all grown up."

Luton is the latest British town to come under fire for changing the name of Christmas. Glasgow's festivities have been renamed "Shine On" and, more recently "Winter Festival." Birmingham has used the term "Winterval" and Sheffield no longer has Christmas illuminations but has changed to "city lights."

[Bob Quixote]

Harry Potter bless us all, every one.

[r9etb]

It's especially ironic, considering that they celebrate the Christmas holiday in the Harry Potter books.....

[patent]

When will these fools learn that respecting other faiths (or paganism in Potter's case) does not mean abandoning your own.

Marshmallow, these people aren’t abandoning their own. They are secularists, that is their faith, and this is in direct furtherance of it.

patent  +AMDG

[RnMomof7]

BUMP

[JMJ333]

Is it some guy with an 8-bit word processor working in his basement in Cleveland?

No...that would be the Mormon daily rag out of Salt Lake.

[RnMomof7]

These people originally from California?

LOL

[patent]

This has got to be a joke, or a fraud. I don't know anything about the "Catholic World News." Is it some guy with an 8-bit word processor working in his basement in Cleveland?

CWS is for real, but only Catholics would have paid much attention to it. EWTN has it too.

patent  +AMDG

[RnMomof7]

"All people from all faiths recognize and appreciate each other," he said. "We do live in a predominantly Christian society and people from other faiths have accepted that. Each faith has its own characteristics and the celebration of any particular faith would not offend anyone else. We are all grown up."

Correct that error we live in a "socially christian" society,not a Christian one..just look at the sale of the Potter books,and Halloween...this "holiday " may be coming to a city near you too!

[MadIvan]

I haven't heard a thing about this, and I live in the UK. Sounds like someone is having you on.

Regards, Ivan

[jrherreid]

A Christmas Carol

The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,

     His hair was like a light.

(O weary, weary were the world,

     But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast,

     His hair was like a star.

(O stern and cunning are the kings,

     But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,

     His hair was like a fire.

(O weary, weary is the world,

     But here the world's desire.)

The Christ-child stood at Mary's knee,

     His hair was like a crown.

And all the flowers looked up at Him,

     And all the stars looked down.

--G.K. Chesterton

[patent]

It's Election Day in Virginia and I don't have time to get into another Potter bashing thread, BUT, associating this with Potter is a little ridiculous. The children in the Potter books celebrate Christmas AND Easter.

If the story is accurate, we didn’t associate it with Potter, the fine folks canceling Christmas did when the chose the name of their new celebration.

patent  +AMDG

[Xenalyte]

When will these fools learn that respecting other faiths (or paganism in Potter's case) does not mean abandoning your own.

First, starting a sentence with "who," "what," "when," "where" or "why" usually makes it a question. Therefore, a question mark would be the appropriate punctuation.

Second, and more importantly, the Harry Potter books are NOT PAGAN. I dare you to provide me one solid example of paganism from any book. "Draco is a pagan name" pseudo-examples won't cut it.

Sheesh.

[jjbrouwer]

Probably taken out of context, Tony. This has received little or no coverage in Britain, but perhaps that is because we are all Devil-worshipping Potterites.

The article cites The Times but I have done a search through Times archives and found nothing - unless it means the Catholic Anti-JK Rowling American Times...

I doubt marshmallow and the other Harry-bashers will worry too much about whether the story is true or not.

[Xenalyte]

I really have no quarrel with those who don't like the Potter books or even who think they're "dangerous." - as long as they have their facts straight.

The best part is when they lay out their alleged facts. Hysteria abounds. Not one fact in the lot - just semantics. Hee hee.

[tophat9000]

I love Festivus. It would be a good Freeper Holiday

First we would have the " airing of (political) grievances " and then " the (political) feats of strength."

[Nataku X]

By now, we all know that Harry Potter smokes pot, does animal/human sacrifices, is named after a Wiccan demon... heh, heh. What else?

[babylonian]

The Road to Hell is broad and wide and they're lining up in droves.

[Rebelbase]

I can't wait to hear what the patch-eyed Nun will have to say about this.

[hattend]

Residents of Luton, England, will not be able to celebrate Christmas this year.

Will Not? Sounds pretty absolute. Will there be anti-Christmas patrols? Fines? Jail Time?