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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone/Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Day of the Week Error
Excuse errors in detail, I'm doing this from memory, as I can't locate my copy of the book. In HP1, Dudley comments that it will be Monday, and he'll miss a show. Following from the date of Sir Nicholas's 500th deathday, this is July 31, 1991.
91+22+31+0=144. 144/7=20 with a remainder of 4, indicating that July 31, 1991 was actually a Wednesday!
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Rated 4.4/10 (23 ratings) Your opinion?
Special Requirements: Copy of the book
Contributed By: Calmypal on 06-05-2004 and Reviewed By: MrHappyHamster
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Comments:
charmedgal writes:
Gee. Wouldn't want to be picky or anything. I think she must have just picked a day and not really checked up on it or anything. Anyway, does it actually say in the book that it was 1991? coz mine says it was first published in 1997.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you? Yes
Red Dog writes:
July 31th, 1995 was a Monday. With this book published in 1997 then, yes, this is probably the year J.K. Rowling was using as a reference for the writing of this book. Just because she didn't write a year into the book by no means makes this a Slip-up. (IT would only be a Slip-up if she wrote a false year). It just makes the book more timeless. 2000, 2006, 2017, 2023 and 2028 are the next 5 years (after 1995) that July 31th falls on a Monday.
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littlenicky writes:
Too true. It's easy enough to check by double-clicking the clock on your Windows Taskbar (if you have it there). It is definitely 1991 as in the second book, at Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday Party, his cake says that he died in 1492. It was his 500th Deathday, so that means it must have been 1992 when the party took place.
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Red Dog writes:
Fighting over this is a dumb fight. Check the rules for posting. This is an error between two books and the error would really be in the second book as this book was written first. Maybe Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday was supposed to be 1496 instead of 1492? In which case ALL the facts work out. Perhaps this is just an EGG put in by JK Rowling to see how many nit pickers read her books rather then enjoying them? I think JK Rowling was trying to make the first book timeless but had 1492 stuck in her head as 500 years ago because a little over 500 years ago Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain looking for a new trade route. Maybe she already knew the director who was going to turn her first book into a movie and put 1492 in as the date to give a hint to the quick witted?
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you? Yes
blufiresprite writes:
To charmedgal: The first book takes place in 1991, even though the book was not published until 1997. And yes, I do agree; she probably did just pick a day and not really bother too much with precision. (It really does make the book more timeless!) To everyone else: Well, you caught me. I was completely ... confused when all that math appeared out of nowhere. I suppose I'll just leave this as it is, then.
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MIH writes:
Who said the first book was set in 1991?????
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bluberry writes:
SS was written in the early 90's, and wasn't published until years later due to her writing in notebooks and napkins and what not. I don't remember how I recalled that the HP series took place in the 90's, but I do know that this is correct. Also, if you go to the Scholastic website or Wikipedia, one of those websites tells you what school year it is.
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Teddie writes:
Last time I read the books Sir Nicholas' birthday happened in book two and Dudley's comment in book 1 so thats a lot of time between the dates and I don't know how you came up with the date anyway.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you? Yes
korax1214 writes:
It must be remembered that when JKR wrote the first two books, she didn't yet have a computer, and presumably also didn't know any of the many methods of working out the day-of-week of a given date. As for "who said the first book was set in 1991?" -- JKR did, in the second book, when she made Nick's day of death October 31, 1492 -- meaning that his 500th Deathday, in book 2, must be October 31, 1992. QED. :-)
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you? Yes

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