Calendars was Re: biggest SPOILER

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 109741

arielock2001 wrote:
> >><snip>
> >>>Born as the seventh month dies:
> >>>

Jem wrote:
> If it was an astrological calendar, then wouldn't we be looking for 
> someone born in the middle of October?
> If it was a Hebrew calendar we'd be looking in April.
> If it was a Celtic calendar, wouldn't we be looking in May?  Isn't 
> Samhain the New Year?
> If it was Chinese--I have no idea.

Now Eustace_Scrubb:
Indeed, a few months ago (May?  the inscrutable archives would tell)
when the Cuaron interview mentioning the graveyard that had to be
removed from the adaptation-in-a-medium-that-must-not-be-named first
came up, JKR stated that Hogwarts was on an ancient Celtic site.  This
led to a number of posts theorizing that the Celtic seventh month,
May, was the one referred to in the prophecy.

My feeling about that also applies to the possibility of September
being the month referred to in the prophecy.  We have no evidence that
the wizarding world, at least in the UK as JKR has described it,
follows a calendar that differs in any significant way from that of
the  surrounding muggles (except of course that September 1 is always
a Sunday).  While it is absolutely true that other calendars have been
used in the UK in other time periods and in other languages, the
prophecy was made in the late 20th century and it was delivered in
English.  I believe the meaning in those carefully chosen words must
be found in English as well (and yes, of course, that meaning will be
translated _into_ numerous languages later).

Now, I agree that JKR knows her Latin and also her Celtic mythology
and she has and will make use of elements of both in weaving her
story.  However, I don't think she will hang a major plot twist on an
archaic Latin meaning of a modern English proper noun.

That's not to say that there aren't a number of interesting
suggestions  that were included in the original post that may play a
role in the conclusion of the series--surely Peter Pettigrew will turn
out to be crucial.  Maybe Harry will be unable to succeed in his
appointed task without Pettigrew fufilling his life debt to Harry
first.  If we do indeed find out more about "our rat-like friend" in
the 6th book as promised by JKR, it may be that Peter will have done
his part and suffered his fate before we get to book 7.

So while I am skeptical about the central premise of the theory, keep
the theories coming!

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb