22 September is National Hobbit Day, and was created to celebrate the birthdays of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, the fictional characters from JRR Tolkien’s popular books The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
According to these books, both the hobbits were born on the same day, but in different years – Bilbo was born in the year 2890 and Frodo in the year 2968 in the Third Age. In Shire-Reckoning, these dates relate to 1290 and 1368 respectively.
The Fellowship of the Ring’s opening scene is a celebration of Bilbo’s birthday with a large party. The party had a lot of food, fireworks, dancing and merriment.
The American Tolkien Society first proclaimed Hobbit Day and Tolkien Week in 1978, defining them as follows: “Tolkien Week is observed as the calendar week containing 22 September, which is always observed as Hobbit Day.” The society does however acknowledge that Hobbit Day pre-dates their designation.
Celebrate today by having a party or feast with your friends and emulate the hobbit’s party, or do what other hobbit fans do, and go barefoot the whole day in honour of the hobbits’ tradition of not wearing shoes. Or you can sit back, relax and read the books or watch the movies.
Post on social media using #NationalHobbitDay.
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