Tom Riddle's birthday - Dead Days

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 185213

Replying to Carol with a bit of interesting information.

I have a short series of book (TWO) that begin with "The Book of
Dead Days" by Marcus Sedgwick.

The information, relevant to this discussion, can be found in
the introduction -

The Dead Days? Have you ever felt the stillness of that strange,
quiet time between Christmas and the New Year?

In ancient Egypt the calendar was made form 12 months of 30 days
each, giving 360 days to the year. The Egyptians were smart 
enough to know that there were actually around 365 days in the 
solar year. 

They reconciled this difference with a story in which the god
Thorth wins five extra days from the reigning gods in a game of
dice and give them to the goddess of night, and thus to the 
people too. These days did not belong to any of the Egyptian 
month and were felt to be outside normal time. The Aztecs, 
using a similar calendrical system, also added five days, but
feared them as days of bad omen and dubbed them 'Dead Days'. 


The first story in the series takes place during these five
'Dead Days', a dark and magical time.

So, Voldemort was born during a dark and mystical time of the
year; a time of bad omens and portends. Seems rather fitting
to me.

Steve/bluewizard