LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 01 - A Long-Expected Party

[Morsul the Dark]

A weird takeaway from this listening to the audio book, Middle Earth May be based on Europe and Shire specifically England, but we can make an interesting assumption that days are shorter that is to say the sun sets earlier. As has been quoted The fireworks start at 6:30 however mid September the sun sets at about 6:45. Most firework displays certainly wait til nightfall.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark

A weird takeaway from this listening to the audio book, Middle Earth May be based on Europe and Shire specifically England, but we can make an interesting assumption that days are shorter that is to say the sun sets earlier. As has been quoted The fireworks start at 6:30 however mid September the sun sets at about 6:45. Most firework displays certainly wait til nightfall.

It wasn't until rather later in the process that Tolkien started using an almanac (for 1942) to keep things like sunrise/sunset and the lunar phases straight.

Even so, he consciously cheated once: the image of the moonlight illuminating Durin's Doors was too striking to give up, even though it's astronomically impossible, so he let it stand. I think the fireworks timing was just an oversight (or else, he didn't want to keep his hungry hobbits waiting too long for dinner!)

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark

A weird takeaway from this listening to the audio book, Middle Earth May be based on Europe and Shire specifically England, but we can make an interesting assumption that days are shorter that is to say the sun sets earlier. As has been quoted The fireworks start at 6:30 however mid September the sun sets at about 6:45. Most firework displays certainly wait til nightfall.

For a while I thought the differences between our calendar and the Shire's might help with this, but 22 Halimath is actually closer to September 13th, which makes matters even worse.

I'd just gone into a long ramble about Roman timekeeping, but I think there's a simpler explanation: did you remember to remove Daylight Saving Time? Our September 22nd is actually near enough the Equinox, meaning kind of by definition sunset should be at 6pm (have I got that right?). It's only because we shift things around that this doesn't happen.

This year, sunset on September 22nd in London is at 5:59 GMT, and on 22 Halimath (September 13th) is at 6:20 GMT. I admit Gandalf was still a little - hroom - hasty, starting up a mere 10 minutes after the sun dipped below the horizon, but there's a lot of hungry Hobbits around.

hS

[William Cloud Hicklin]

When written it was Sept 22 Gregorian, just a day off the equinox; the Shire Reckoning was invented after the book was finished.