Harry Potter's birthday: how old is the favorite wizard of children and adults

Without the books and movies about the boy wizard Harry Potter, it is already impossible to imagine the childhood of a modern person. The universe created by the British writer Joanne Rowling has become an integral part of culture, and the characters inhabiting it have become our close friends. Therefore, fans of this universe every year celebrate the birthday of the main character.

As OBOZREVATEL reminds, Harry Potter's birthday falls on July 31. According to the mythology of Potteriana, he was born in 1980, so today he celebrates his 43rd birthday.

According to the books, a year before Harry was born, the soothsayer Sibylla Trelawney predicted that the appearance of someone who could defeat the Dark Lord and return the world to normality was approaching. She even gave an approximate date. Having learned about it, the Dark Lord Voldemort tried to kill Harry as a baby, but he was closed by his parents, paying for his salvation with their lives. Thus came one of the "titles" of the character - the boy who survived.

Notably, Harry shares a birthday with his creator. Joanne Rowling also celebrates it on July 31. She was born in 1965, and thanks to her super-successful literary series and subsequent movie franchise, she turned from an ordinary writer, barely making ends meet, into one of the richest and most influential British women.

On the last day of July, it is customary to post on social networks congratulations for Harry and add a special hashtag #HappyBirthdayHarryPotter. Also fans of the universe hold meetings and celebrations, reread favorite books and watch movie versions.

But July 31 is not the only unofficial holiday that unites fans of Potteriana. Thus, on May 2, the World Harry Potter Day is celebrated annually. Such a date was chosen, because according to the mythology of the literary universe on this day in 1998 the battle for Hogwarts took place, in which the young wizard defeated Voldemort.

Interesting facts about Harry Potter

• The idea of a series of novels was formed at Joanne Rowling, when she was traveling by train from Manchester to London and saw from the window a boy with glasses. Even then, the writer knew that the books would be only seven.

• On writing the first novel in the series of Rowling took five years. She had to work a lot on the creation of logic and rules of the magical world. But further work went faster.
• The birthplace of Harry the author chose a remote area of London Clapham. There she first came to her mind the idea of creating a Potteriana.
• Many phenomena of the magical world of Potteriana appeared because of certain events in Rowling's personal life. So the wardens of Azkaban prison dementors she came up with after a severe depression. Quidditch game - after a strong quarrel with her boyfriend. The Night Knight bus driver and conductor Ernie and Stanley are named after the author's grandfathers. And the legendary platform 9¾, from where the trains depart for Hogwarts, the writer placed at King's Cross station, because her parents met there.

• The motto of Hogwarts School of Magic Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus translates from Latin as "Never tickle a sleeping dragon".
• The Harry Potter books, released at the turn of the millennium, were the first children's books to appear on the New York bestseller list since 1952. Back then, E. B. White's Charlotte's Web made the list.
• The movies about the little wizard were nominated for an Oscar 12 times, but did not win a single statuette.
• Rowling's writings earned her second place in Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2007. She was noted for the "social, moral and political inspiration" that she gave fans of her works.

Earlier OBOZREVATEL showed how the main actors of the Harry Potter films have changed for 22 years since the release of the first picture.

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