Harry's B-day Re: Riddle and Grindelwald in 1945

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 109370

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "romulusmmcdougal" 
<romulus at h...> wrote:

RMM:
> Geoff, I am sorry you continue to misunderstand me.  Perhaps there 
is 
> something about the differences in our language?


Geoff:
Judging by your juggling act with "on 31st July", yes.


RMM:
> When I say something like "see you next week" to someone, I do not 
> mean to say that I will see you in exactly 7 days.
> I am saying, I will see you sometime next week.  Okay?
> 
> Now, Ted the Weatherman is saying on Tuesday that Bonfire Night is 
> next week.  He obviously is meaning "next week" the way I mean it, 
> sometime next week.  One simply consults the calendar and sees that 
> November 5th falls on a Thursday.  Counting back from that Thursday
> of 
> "next week" one arrives to Tuesday of this week and finds -- 
VOILA!! 
> -- Tuesday, October 27, 1981.
> 


Geoff:
<sigh> Perhaps I should spend some time banging my head on a wall - 
it's probably less stressful.... </sigh>

I'm beginning to be sorry I ever dropped an odd comment about Harry 
birthday into message 109040.

Several contributors to this discussion have commented on the fact 
that Jo Rowling appears to have been a trifle cavalier with her use 
of days of the week. However you may view it, there are certainly 
discrepancies with the starting days of the Hogwarts school year. 
Now, I am not criticising her or blaming her for this. It has been 
remarked that maybe she didn't anticipate the power of the 
microscopes which would be levelled on her every word as the books 
are dissected. I have found quite frequently that other writers throw 
an odd day in without really analysing whether it fits their story.

What I do find tiresome is your refusal to even consider that there 
are errors in the days. Every fact has to be distorted to fit "your" 
timeline. You have flown in the face of English grammatical usage in 
order to support your ideas about the Gringotts break-in despite 
Harry's quite obvious remark about his birthday linking with the 31st 
July.


RMM:
So, then, would you take the 10 year old memory of Hagrid over
today's
word of a newsreader?
I wouldn't.
> Hence, the first book of Harry Potter started on Tuesday, October 
27, 
> 1981.  I rest my case.


Geoff:
I think there is another mistake over the day here. I would indeed 
take the memory of Hagrid over the weatherman for one glaringly 
obvious fact....

Hagrid may be considered a bit of a buffoon by some folk but 
Hallowe'en is a most important date in the Wizarding World calendar - 
certainly in Hogwarts. Do you really think that he would so daft as 
to mix up a date of Hallowe'en with an everyday date like 27th 
October? Would something happen to one of us on 19th December and we 
go around 10 years later saying that it happened on Christmas Day?

I'm not one for trawling through JKR's interviews but I'm sure 
someone will be able to point us to a comment from her that Harry's 
birthday is 31st July and he was attacked on Hallowe'en 1981. The 
Lexicon certainly supports these dates.