Harry Potter's birthdate

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

(This seems too trivial for GQ.)

Yesterday I said hello to the mom of a former student. Doing well. She’s in 9th grade now. Scholarship to Amherst Prep.

I know my former student digs fantasy fiction, because the very first novel she read in English was “The Magician’s Nephew” by C.S. Lewis. Also, I pulled out my copy of J. K. Rowling’s latest, and the mom said, “Oh, Cindy (NHRN) has that book!”

So for fun, I said, “Tell Cindy she’s the same age as Harry Potter.”

You would think, wouldn’t you? In the latest book published, Harry is in the equivalent of 9th grade. He’s 14 going on 15, just like Cindy. (I was strongly tempted to compare Cindy to Hermione. Both very good, hard-working and studious. But Mom wouldn’t have understood the reference.)

So Harry would have been born in 1986, caused Lord Voldemort to flee in 1987, and entered Hogwarts in 1997.

But then I remembered that in the latest book, Halloween falls on a Saturday. That hasn’t happened since 1998. So Harry would have been born in, what, 1984? And the books are two years behind the present day. (They definitely take place in the era of personal computers.)

Also, when is Harry’s birthday? It’s in the summertime, because the books always begin with him spending a lonely birthday at the Dursleys’ during summer holidays. It’s probably in July, since Professor Trelawney, who’s always predicting Harry’s death, pointedly added that the danger was especially great for those born in July. But does anybody have the exact date?

Yes, I know I have too much time on my hands. But I think it might be fun to have my students send phony birthday cards to J. K. Rowling every year. (I teach in summertime.)

2

I found this by searching on the net :cool:

“July 31, 1980 - the day of Harry Potter’s birth (we know the date because of the letter from Hogwarts in Book 1; we know the year because in Book 2 Nearly-Headless Nick celebrated his 500th Deathday; we know he died on October 31st, 1492, making the date of the party October 31st, 1992. Harry was 12 in Book 2, so 1992 - 12 = 1980.)”

from this site

3

Awwwwww, but what about my Halloween-on-a-Saturday theory? A bit of good sleuthing, that. :(:(:(:frowning:

Of course, maybe the good dame Rowling just made a mistake. Or doesn’t care about dates, since it’s a fantasy anyway. But her plots are so complex, you’d think she WOULD pay attention to something like that!

How about it, Dopers? Which sounds more plausible to you, the Halloween-on-Saturday theory, the Nearly-Headless-Nick’s-500th-deathday theory, or None of the Above?

I hope this starts a ferocious debate that gets thrown into The Pit. Even worse and even sillier than that science-fiction-versus-sci-fi thing they’re arguing over in IMHO. :slight_smile:

BTW, if you count the very FIRST deathday, wouldn’t Nick’s celebration have been in 1991???

4

I think it’s likelier (more likely?) that Rowling either made a mistake in the Halloween on Saturday thing (much like Watson’s bullet wound) or else fudged or ignored the date because it was important to have Halloween on Saturday.

The fact that there is actual documentation from the book(see Catmarie’s post) overshadows the inconsistency in the days of the week, IMHO.

While I enjoy the series very much, and am happy for its success and popularity, I can’t understand people who take such things overly seriously (not that I’m picking on you, tclouie. I think you’re just having a bit of fun). But I can see the same thing happening here as has happened to Sherlock Holmes. Whole societies exist who actually behave as if the man existed. And inconsistencies such as Watson’s bullet wound spawn whole theories and apologetics. Silly, if you ask me.

Fiction is subject to such slips, especially serialized fiction. Either an author has to ignore some facts (or doesn’t think they’re important) in order to suit his/her needs, or else it’s just something that falls between the cracks.

An editor somewhere along the line may well have pointed out the calendar problem, but decided in the end it wasn’t important enough to make a change.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s sometimes fun to notice, point out and even debate such inconsistencies in fiction. It only makes me nuts when people start to behave as if Harry Potter’s “biography” were the same as Harry Houdini’s and start to treat it as a documentation of actual events.

5

I have the “Official” Harry Potter desk calendar (they were on sale for $1…don’t make fun of me!!!).
In it, it has Harry’s birthday as July 25th (it doesn’t mention a year).

6

That’s my BROTHER’S birthday! Whaddya know.

7

Harry’s 11th birthday was on a Tuesday, does this help figure things out?

8

I think I need to get a life, but here is the data I have come up with.

Harry certainly was born in 1980, because of the data in the second book on Nick’s deathday. Nick’s party was on Halloweem, Oct 31, 1992, and that day WAS a Saturday, although I don’t believe the second book is specific as to the day of the week.

If Harry was born in July of 1980 there are five possible dates for his birthday. They are July 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30. These dates are the Tuesdays for that July, and the first book DOES say Harry’s birthday was on a Tuesday. I quote “Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday–and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television, then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry’s 11th birthday.”

The Hogwarts letter in the first book does not say that July 31 is Harry’s birthday, just that his reply about enrolling is due by then.

So somewhere there has been an error made, most likely by the marketing people that put out “official” Harry Potter stuff.

9

Not that I care about this in the least, but the quote cited appears to indicate that Harry’s 11th birthday fell on a Tuesday, not that he was born on a Tuesday. In fact, if he turned eleven on a Tuesday, wouldn’t that mean he was born on a Saturday?

10

Every 11 years, your birthday falls on the same day of the week. If you’re born on a Tuesday (like me, and apparently Harry) then your birthday will be on a Tuesday when you’re 11, 22, 33, 44, etc…

Don’t know if that helps, but there you have it.

(And, no I don’t remember where I heard that, but when I did, I checked it out, and it’s true)

11

:o Oops sounds like that site is wrong. Sorry!
[sub][sup](I am at work and don’t have the books to check on)[/sup][/sub]

12

Jodi, you have a point. The dates I posted were for 1991. Dumb mistake. If one would go to this site: http://www.vpcalendar.net you can look up calendars for any year. That’s where I got the dates before. It’s a fascinating site anyway, I had fun looking up other days for my family. So I guess the question of Harry’'s actual birthdate is still up in the air. Jeannie, when you look at these calendars sometimes you birthdate does fall every 11 years, but then leapyears get in there and screw thing up and sometimes it’s six years, sometimes something else.

13

Harry’s birthday is July 31st!

It was referring to the Hogwarts letter that was the red herring. At a later point in book one he reads “The Daily Prophet” over Ron’s shoulder. There is an article about the attempted theft at Gringott’s which occurred on July 31st. Harry recalls that he and Hagrid were there earlier that very day, his birthday!

So unless I misread something, which is possible even though I double checked, 31 July is the winning date.

As for consistency and days of the week, I think that’s expecting too much from an author. If it was me and advancement of the plot required Halloween to be on a Saturday I’d put it on Saturday without referring to a calendar. But that’s just me.

14

THANK YOU PLUTO!

I am of, shall we say, adult years, and like the Harry Potter books. For some reason this question bothered me, which is why I tried, and faile, to figure it out for myself. You took a load off my poor old tired mind.

15

Cool! Thanks pluto
:smiley:

16

For anyone else who’s interested, Hermione was born September 19, 1980 and Ron was born March 1, 1980. James, Lily, Snape, Lupin, Sirius, Petter, were born in 1960. Dumbledore was born in 1840.

17

On the other hand, I am still a youth. However, I seem to be trapped inside this middle-aged body. I suspect Voldemort.