Tom Riddle's Birthday STRANGE Isn't it-- Was Happy Birthday list

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 154513

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tonya Minton" 
<tonyaminton at ...> wrote:
<snip> I find it strange that Tom was born on December
> 31st.  Why do you think that JKR picked that date of all dates to 
> have Lord Voldemort be born??  I am very curious about this choice 
> of date.  I would have said WELL of course if he had been born on 
> Halloween, you know what I mean??
> 

Pip!Squeak writes:

I think it continues Tom's association with death - just like his 
yew wand. December 31st is when the Old Year dies. Also, the 
superstition is that a bad New Year's Eve means a bad year and it's 
described in HBP Ch. 13 as a really nasty night, snowing and bitter 
cold. New Year's Eve is also associated with evergreens (as is all 
the period around the Winter Solstice), which reflects Tom's 
obsessions with death and immortality.

There is also another superstition, which is that a child born on 
New Year's DAY, as the year is born, is exceptionally lucky. It's 
possible that JKR is playing around with that as well - a powerful 
wizard born as the year dies, showing how he''ll be exceptionally 
unlucky for the world.

Pip!Squeak