Pagan roots

I take issue with Jarett Kobek’s letter [ FT404:72] in response to Therese Taylor’s article [ FT400:48-51]. Does he seek to bamboozle us by bringing in the big guns of academia with his assertion that “almost all contemporary scholars” agree that folk traditions are “explicitly Christian practices”? What – all folk practices, all over the world? Surely no one can doubt that corn dollies on hayricks and holly, ivy and mistletoe at Christmas are directly related to pagan practices in this particular part of the world. Might I suggest that he reads Mary-Ann Ochota’s new book, Secret Britain, for a fascinating tour of fantastica unearthed throughout Britain,

the origins of which are obscure, to appreciate the diversity of beliefs even in this small corner of the world? And shouldn’t we be embracing diversity? Rebecca Kavanagh

Worsley, Greater Manchester