Re: Calendar Error In Sorcerer's Stone

On Oct 6, 1:43 pm, Thom Madura <Tommad...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sirius Kase wrote:
On Oct 5, 6:54 pm, dicc...@xxxxxxxxx (Richard Eney) wrote:
In article <1191623096.259644.148...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

Tonks <punkve...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Why didn't J.K. Rowlings consult a
perpetual calendar before writing the Harry Potter books?
I think they should garnish her royalties!
I agree! How dare she make a mistake!!!
Haha but seriously yeah I'm actually kind of surprised about that.
She's usually so prescise about EVERYTHING. Oh well. I suppose she's
entitled to make a couple minor mistakes.... even though it bothers
the heck out of me..... :-)
The numerous and incompatible calendar errors have been a perpetual
topic here since the newsgroup began. The problem seems to be that
calendars have numbers on them, and JKR is allergic to numbers in
logical order.

At one point, long ago, there was a theory that she had used the
same calendar for two years in a row, but even then, it had to
have been a calendar for a different year than the one current
at the time of writing. I think it was after PoA, because I remember
some discussion of whether the earthly full moons were at the right
times.

It would be neat if someone (not me) trawled through the books
and posted all the calendar errors (again).

=Tamar

the second, third, and fourth books mostly use the 1992-93 academic
calendar except for Valentines day. One nice feature is that
Halloween is always on Saturday, which is the thing that I first got
my attention in the books. My explanatory theory was that the wizards
had figured out how to simpllify their life by using the same
calendar every year by having two contiguous days in midsummer both
be Saturday.

Here's a calendar:

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/index.html?year=1992&country=9

Remember, an academic calendar starts in the fall, so you must
generate 1993 to see the second semester. I leave that to you as an
exersize .

What is wrong with just saying that Halloween falls on a particular
Saturday of the month (Like maybe the last) - like having Thanksgiving
fall on the third Thursday in November - regardless of the date.

Because no one with any clout has ever proposed that. If the wizrds
did something like that, Rowling would have mentioned it since it is
significantly different than the way Halloween is designated in our
world. Besides, the Potters tombstone proves that they died on Oct.
31, 1981, which was a Saturday. There is nothing in the books to
indicated that Hogwarts had its Halloween feast at any time other than
the usual date of Halloween. Departures from normal would be noted.

After all - If you believe in it - the Christ was born in the Spring -
which hardly fits a day in December.

Christ is a Harry Potter character? I missed that. But, anywho,
people who study such things say Jesus was born in late January in
Bethlehem, a part of Israel where it does't snow. Sheep can graze
year round in southern Israel. As mentioned in earlier threads,
church holidays were set for reasons other than historical accuracy.
Otherwise, we would celebrate Christ's birthday in January and his
death at the first full moon following the spring equinox. Then, we'd
celebrate his resurrection on the following Sunday. But, we don't for
reasons I don't fully understand.


.

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