On... must have been Wednesday, when I was driving home, I saw the sliver of new moon, low in the sky, so low that it was a dark burnt-orange color, so low that as I got closer to my house it disappeared below the hill. A strange color. It made me want to be standing in a wide meadow or on a stony hillside, with a breeze blowing whispers through nearby trees. It reminded me (as new moons always do) of the Dwarves' New Year.

The first day of the dwarves' New Year ... is as all should know the first day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter. We still call it Durin's Day when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together.

-- Thorin, in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Assuming I ever have kids, and assuming I eventually read The Hobbit to them (providing the first happens, which I hope it does, the second is a certainty), I may try to time the reading of the book to the occurrence of a Durin's Day at the appropriate point, so that we can all go outside and look and go "oooh." I'm silly that way.

And not that you couldn't guess, but I love the internet. Wanting to type that quote just now, but being too lazy to go all the way to my bedroom, take down The Hobbit from the shelf, and find the place where Thorin's quotation is, I simply Googled the phrase I could remember, "dwarves' new year is as all should know". And the Encyclopedia of Arda helpfully popped up not only with that quote, but going on to explain to me all about the dwarvish calendar (or at least as much as we can know), with occurrences of Durin's Day through 2011.

Also, this year's Durin's Day includes a bonus partial solar eclipse (your longitude may vary). Going to mark 14 October on my calendar now.

contents of the purple tricycle are copyright 2004 carrie lynn king unless otherwise noted.