Halloween Release Speculation (Was:Re: Clue to Release of Book 7?)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 163300

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Cat McNulty <cat_mcnulty at ...> wrote:
>
> Greetings All!
>    
>   The evidence for a Halloween release date is increasing. Yes there is the obvious: 
witches, wizards and all things super natural are associated with All Hallow's Eve. 
>    
>   Aside: I really would like for it to be 7/7/07 just because we all have been waiting such 
a long time and that date would really be numerically appropriate. However, because 
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" movie release date is 7/13/07 I am sure that 
the various publicity people would not want to compete with each other. And in the past, 
movie premeires and book releases were always several months apart. Timing is of vital 
importance in the publicity business!
>    
>   Now, regardless of all the technical time evidence of: first draft...editing...translating ... 
printing, etc. it would be very felicitous for the date to be October 31st ... the day the 
adventure began and the day Harry became "The Boy Who Lived."
>   Harry even talks about going back to Godric's Hollow at the end of HBP and starting his 
search for the other horcruxes in the place where it all began.
>   The title "HP and the Deathly Hallows" does evoke images of the season: All Hallows 
Eve, Samhain, Halloween, All Saints Day, All Soul's Day and Day of the Dead. It is believed 
that the veil betweens worlds is thinner at this time of the year and it is easier, during this 
time for spirits to cross over to or communicate with the mundane plane of existence. 

<snip>
    
>   Anyway, Samhain is the Celtic New Year. A time of death and rebirth. The death of the 
old and the birth of the new. The beginning of the Celtic day is/was sundown. All life 
begins in darkness (The womb, The earth, The egg, etc...) The year has come full circle 
and so has the adventure of Harry Potter. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is, 
afterall, The Beginning of the End.

Geoff:
I'm not sure I read it the same way as you. If the date of publication is 
either 07/07/07 or 31/10/07, this suggests that Jo Rowling has been 
working to this timetable since before 1997 when the first book came 
out.

I do not believe that she intended to take ten years and more over the 
series because she has commented along the way that there were times 
when the progression of Harry's books was interrupted by circumstances 
which were not in her game plan - divorce, re-marriage, childbirth, writer's 
block to mention just a few. I have said in the past that some of us seem 
to leap on every reference to seven with whoops of glee and now, to other 
group members, "Hallows" seems to be taken as a reference to "Hallowe'en" 
merely to make the facts fit the theory - which is perhaps putting the cart 
before the horse.

I agree that to have Hallowe'en 1997 as seeing the end of the war would 
be neatly symmetrical but good stories do not always have such a 
symmetry because this can appear to be contrived. Again, I believe that 
the Celtic New Year will not be relevant becasue JKR is a Christian and 
would not necessarily be influenced by that date.