Hogwarts, Quincy campus
At Halloween, church conjures up spirit of Harry Potter for kids
While some people see the "Harry Potter" books as a front for the occult (the wildly popular series by J.K. Rowling is high on the American Library Associations's list of 100 "most frequently challenged" books), an inventive Quincy church takes just the opposite view -- especially at Halloween.
The Quincy Community United Methodist Church on Saturday will, for the second year in a row, be transformed into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, opening its doors to local children who will enter the magical world of Harry Potter for the afternoon.
The church's minister, the Rev. Susan Jarek-Glidden, has no patience with those who see a children's book series about growing up wizardly as anti religious. "Harry Potter teaches it's right to stand up for yourself, it's right to stand up for your friends, to be devoted to a cause." Even, she added, to be willing to "give your life for your friends. Hello? Have we heard that one before?"
The books, she said, are "a wonderful series that teaches about good and evil."
With that thought -- and perhaps an even bigger desire to provide children with a "wonderful" and non scary Halloween experience -- the congregation has thrown itself into the arduous task of creating its true-to-the-book version of the prep school for wizards that is the main venue of the series. About "98 percent" of the congregation participates, donates, or volunteers in some way or other to put on the show, Jarek-Glidden said.
Adult volunteers costumed as Hogwarts teachers will tutor students in such essential classes as Magical Potions and Divination, as well as the broomstick sport of Quidditch, while relentlessly staying in character.
The visiting "students" also will get to join in such Hogwarts rituals as the Sorting Ceremony, the Portrait Lady, and choosing your magical wand -- all of which may seem like gibberish to those who have not read the book but will make perfect sense to those who have.
Last year's Harry Potter Halloween Party worked so well that ideas for the follow up began emerging almost immediately afterward, and planning for this year's party began during the summer. This year, church volunteers decided, the party will follow the plot of the most recent Harry Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which was based on the fourth book of the series -- published six years ago at a hefty 636 pages. Volunteers designed activities based on the book's central plot device, the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Like Hogwarts students trying out to represent their school at the tournament, the visiting "students" will be faced with three tasks. They have to get an egg from a dragon, endure an underwater adventure with the "merpeople," and pass through the magic maze. Party planners faced the arguably stiffer challenge of staging these adventures inside the church building in Wollaston Square -- an area not known for dragons, underwater people, or magical mazes (not counting traffic).
Jarek-Glidden explained that while dragon eggs posed no problem, the second test was a tougher nut to crack. "Kids in water" sounded to church volunteers like a date with a liability lawyer, Jarek-Glidden said. So they decided on an imaginary equivalent, transforming the church's gym in to the mer-kingdom with representations of fish, kelp, and the "gillyweed" Hogwart students need to survive underwater.
Finally, there was the maze, which turned into a guy-project for congregation volunteers who spent a Saturday building a maze with walls higher than their heads on the auditorium stage. "I could not believe what I was looking at," Jarek-Glidden said of this piece of stage magic. "I said I can't believe this. It's gorgeous."
As at Hogwarts, party goers will be assigned to different houses by the Sorting Ceremony. Organizers have acquired a magical hat, a battered, brown wizard's hat that "looks just like the one in the movie," the minister said, and as each student is correctly sorted -- by equally unexplainable powers -- a voice calls out the name of the house.
They will get to try out for Quidditch in the church gym, though the activity will take place within the "muggle " -- or non magical -- world, which puts a lid on suspending gravity. "If the adults bring their cameras," she said tactfully, "they will only get muggle photos." Passersby should not expect to see witches and wizards circling over Beale Street.
And, as at Hogwarts, "students" will enjoy a Halloween Feast, including "butter beer," a Hogwarts staple with a strong resemblance to root-beer floats, and finger foods prepared in the church's kitchen.
A few secrets can be revealed. The Goblet of Fire itself has been constructed from a crystal ball pedestal, a large vase, and plastic strips flickering over a light bulb.
Admission to the party, which is to begin at 1 p.m., is $6 per person, $20 for a family of four, and free to children 3 and younger. Reservations are required; last year's event sold out. Reserve by calling 617-773-6854. The church is at 40 Beale St. in Wollaston.
Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox@gmail.com. 