So Fireworks started at 6:30

Trish Lambert

Trish Lambert

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For some reason, this is the first time (after re-reading the trilogy I don't know how many times) that I noticed that. It made me wonder where (if we assume that this world is a twin of our own) on the planet that puts The Shire.

Googling "sunset September 22 2017 London" gives me a sunset of 6:53 pm, which might be Daylight Savings time, not sure. If it is, then the Standard time sunset would be 5:53, which means it would be dark enough by 6:30 for a fireworks show.

So, I gues no surprise, British times/seasons were on Tolkien's mind here.
 
Timezones are a human invention. My dim recollection is that they were introduced to the UK when the train network required a unified timetable so people knew when to catch their trains. Up until then you would work from the sundial attached to your parish church or similar edifice, so strictly local time everywhere :confused:

So probably on Middle-earth they would have no need.
 
Trish Lambert said:
Googling "sunset September 22 2017 London" gives me a sunset of 6:53 pm, which might be Daylight Savings time, not sure. If it is, then the Standard time sunset would be 5:53, which means it would be dark enough by 6:30 for a fireworks show.
Click to expand...

British Summer Time (their version of DST) is in effect in September, so that works out.
 
And there you go! And the time zone I was referring to was as it related to my Google search, nothing to do with Middle-earth.
 
When I googled the same question, the time listed was GMT or Greenwich Mean Time and not BST. Accordingly sunset would not occur until 7:53 pm BST.
 
Sunset around the time of the equinox (usually September 22 or 23 in the Gregorian calendar) doesn't tell you much about latitude, as it will be around six o clock local time almost from pole to pole. If you instead assume that "September 22" is the 22nd day of the ninth month of the Shire calendar with Midyear Day coinciding with the summer solstice, you will end up about ten days earlier, when the sun sets about twenty past six local time in London, which is a bit late for fireworks at 6:30.
 
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