Hobbit Day - Misplaced Pages

Unofficial observance, September 22

Hobbit Day is a name used for September 22nd in reference to its being the birthday of the hobbits Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, two fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's popular set of books The Hobbit (first published on September 21, 1937) and The Lord of the Rings. According to the fictional setting, Bilbo was born in the year of 2890 and Frodo in the year of 2968 in the Third Age (1290 and 1368 respectively in Shire-Reckoning.)

Tolkien Week is the week containing Hobbit Day.

Observance

The American Tolkien Society first proclaimed Hobbit Day and Tolkien Week in 1978. It defines Hobbit Day as September 22, and Tolkien Week as the calendar week containing that day. The society acknowledges that Hobbit Day pre-dates their designation.

Due to the discrepancies between the fictional Shire calendar and the Gregorian calendar there is some debate about when to celebrate Hobbit Day, since the actual birthday would be between September 12 and 14 in the Gregorian calendar, as explained in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings.

Celebration

The Fellowship of the Ring opened with a celebration of Bilbo's birthday. It was a large party with food, fireworks, dancing, and much merriment.

Some Tolkien fans celebrate by emulating the hobbits' parties. Others simply go barefoot in honour of the hobbits, who do not wear shoes.

Some schools and libraries use this as an opportunity to pique interest in Tolkien's work by putting up displays and hosting events.

According to The Lord of the Rings appendices, "There is no record of the Shire-folk commemorating either March 25 or September 22; but in the Westfarthing, especially in the country round Hobbiton Hill, there grew a custom of making holiday and dancing in the Party Field, when weather permitted, on April 6." In Gondor, however, "in honour of Frodo Yavannie 30, which corresponded to the former September 22, his birthday, was made a festival, and the leap-year was provided for by doubling this feast, called Cormare or Ringday."

References

^ "Hobbit Day and Tolkien Week". American Tolkien Society.
"Hobbit Day". Days of the Year. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
^ "8 Academic Holidays". Neatorama. 16 June 2009.
^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954). The Lord of the Rings. George Allen & Unwin. Appendix D.
The Lord of the Rings 50th Anniversary text, page 1112.

Middle-earth

Works

In Tolkien's lifetime	The Hobbit (1937) The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) The Fellowship of the Ring "The Shadow of the Past" "The Council of Elrond" The Two Towers The Return of the King "The Scouring of the Shire" "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962)
Posthumous	The Silmarillion (1977) "Ainulindalë" Unfinished Tales (1980) The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981) Bilbo's Last Song (1990) The three "Great Tales" The Children of Húrin (2007) Beren and Lúthien (2017) The Fall of Gondolin (2018) The Fall of Númenor (2022)

History of
composition

History of Middle-earth	The Book of Lost Tales (1983–84) Ælfwine The Lays of Beleriand (1985) The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986) The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987) The Etymologies Lhammas The History of The Lord of the Rings (1988–92) The Notion Club Papers Morgoth's Ring (1993) The War of the Jewels (1994) The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)
Others	John D. Rateliff The History of The Hobbit (2007) Carl F. Hostetter The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)

Fictional
universe

Peoples, monsters	Ainur Maiar Balrogs Wizards Valar Dragons Ancalagon Smaug Dwarves Eagles Elves Half-elven Noldor Sundering Ents Hobbits Men Beornings Drúedain Dúnedain Orcs Trolls
Characters	First and Second Ages Celebrimbor Eärendil and Elwing Elendil Fëanor Fingolfin Finwë and Míriel Gil-galad Húrin Isildur Lúthien and Beren Melian Morgoth Thingol Tuor and Idril Túrin Turambar Ungoliant Third Age Elrond Galadriel Gandalf Glorfindel Goldberry Gollum Saruman Sauron Tom Bombadil
Places	First and Second Ages Beleriand Númenor Valinor Third Age Bree Esgaroth Gondor Harad Isengard Lonely Mountain Lothlórien Mirkwood Mordor Moria Rivendell Rohan The Shire Bag End
Objects	Mithril Palantír Red Book of Westmarch Rings of Power One Ring Silmarils Two Trees of Valinor List of weapons and armour

Analysis

Elements	Artwork Family trees Heraldry Languages Adûnaic Black Speech Elvish Quenya Sindarin Khuzdul Valarin Westron Maps Tolkien's poetry Scripts Cirth Sarati Tengwar
Themes	Anachronism Ancestry as guide to character Architecture Christianity Cosmology Round World dilemma Death and immortality Decline and fall Dreams and visions Economy England Environmentalism Evil First World War Forests Frame stories Hell Heroism Light Luck and fate Magic Mental illness Modernism Moral dilemma Music Naming of weapons Northern courage Old Straight Road Paganism Plants Psychological journeys Quests Sound and language Time Trees
Literary	Tolkien's impact on fantasy Influences Beowulf Celtic Classical world Finnish language and literature Medieval Modern Norse Philology Shakespeare Prose style Ambiguity A mythology for England
Geographic	The Atlas of Middle-earth Journeys of Frodo A Map of Middle-earth

Adaptations,
legacy

Artists	Pauline Baynes Cor Blok Anke Eißmann Brothers Hildebrandt Jenny Dolfen Mary Fairburn Donato Giancola John Howe Tove Jansson Alexander Korotich Alan Lee Tom Loback Margrethe II of Denmark Ted Nasmith
Composers	Bo Hansson Johan de Meij Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings Howard Shore Music of The Lord of the Rings film series Music of The Hobbit film series Music of The Rings of Power TV series Blind Guardian Nightfall in Middle-Earth
Settings	Donald Swann The Road Goes Ever On Poems and Songs of Middle Earth The Tolkien Ensemble An Evening in Rivendell A Night in Rivendell At Dawn in Rivendell Leaving Rivendell
Other media	Impact Middle-earth Enterprises Works inspired by Tolkien Fan fiction Film Calendars Video games Things named after Tolkien and his works

Literary
criticism

Calendars

Systems

In wide use

In more
limited use

Akan Armenian Assamese (Bhāshkarābda) Assyrian Baháʼí Badí‘ Bali Pawukon Saka Bengali Bangladeshi Berber Borana Burmese Chinese Earthly Branches Heavenly Stems Minguo Solar term Germanic heathen Georgian Hebrew Hindu Vikram Samvat Saka Hmong Igbo Iranian Jalali medieval Zoroastrian Irish Gaelic Islamic Fasli Tabular Jain Japanese Javanese Korean Juche Kurdish Lithuanian Maithili Malayalam Mandaean Manipuri (Meitei) Melanau Mongolian Nepal Nepal Sambat Vikram Samvat Yele Sambat Nisg̱a'a Odia Punjabi Nanakshahi Romanian Shona Somali Sesotho Slavic Slavic Native Faith Macedonian Tamil Thai lunar solar Tibetan Tripuri Tulu Vietnamese Wicca Xhosa Yoruba Zulu
Types	Runic Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar round
Christian variants	Coptic Ethiopian and Eritrean Julian Revised Liturgical year Eastern Orthodox Saints

Historical

By specialty

Holocene
- anthropological
Proleptic Gregorian / Proleptic Julian
- historiographical
Darian
- Martian
Dreamspell
- New Age
Discordian
'Pataphysical

Reform proposals

Displays and
applications

Year naming
and numbering

Terminology	Era Epoch Leap year New Year Regnal name Regnal year Year zero
Systems	Ab urbe condita Anka year Anno Domini/Common Era Anno Lucis Anno Martyrum Anno Mundi Assyrian Before Present Chinese Imperial Chinese Minguo English and British regnal year Hijri year Human (Holocene) Japanese Korean Nirayana system Seleucid Spanish Yugas Satya Treta Dvapara Kali Vietnamese

Fictional

Categories:

Observance

Celebration

See also

References