April 6

April 6 is a date of layered significance in the Shire Calendar, appearing in the records of the Red Book of Westmarch as a day on which multiple joyful and symbolic events converged in the years following the War of the Ring. In the reckoning of the Shire, where the year began on the second day of January and months had thirty days, April 6 fell in the season of spring, a time of renewal that mirrored the political and natural rebirth of the lands after Sauron's fall.

The Honoring of the Ring-bearers

On April 6, 3019 of the Third Age (S.R. 1419), the Ring-bearers Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee were publicly honored on the Field of Cormallen in Ithilien. There, before a great host drawn up in ranks and companies glittering in the sun, King Elessar (Aragorn) set them upon his own throne and commanded that they be praised with great praise. A minstrel of Gondor knelt and begged leave to sing of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom, and the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, moving the assembled host to both laughter and tears. This ceremony marked the formal recognition of their central role in the destruction of the One Ring and the overthrow of Sauron.

The Flowering of the Mallorn

In the following year, S.R. 1420, which was remembered as the Great Year of Plenty, April 6 was the day on which the mallorn tree in the Party Field at Hobbiton first burst into flower. Samwise Gamgee had planted the little silver nut from Galadriel's gift in that field, where the old Party Tree had once stood before it was cut down by Saruman's ruffians. The sapling that sprang up had silver bark and long leaves, and on this April day it opened its golden blossoms, becoming the wonder of the neighborhood and the only mallorn west of the Mountains and east of the Sea. The flowering was seen as a sign of the Shire's healing and blessing.

Birth of Elanor the Fair

On April 6, 3021 (S.R. 1421), the first child of Samwise Gamgee and Rose Cotton was born. They named her Elanor, after the small golden star-shaped flower that grew in the grass of Lothlórien. She was noted for her beauty, with golden hair that was rare among hobbits, and she later became a maid of honor to Queen Arwen. In the reckoning of Gondor, this same date marked the beginning of the Fourth Age, for the Fourth Age was held to have begun on March 25, 3021 old style, and the New Reckoning year started on that day; but April 6 in the Shire Calendar corresponded to that new year's beginning in the ceremonial sense.

A Traditional Holiday

In later years, a custom grew up in the Westfarthing, especially in the country round Hobbiton Hill, of making holiday and dancing in the Party Field on April 6, when weather permitted. Some said it was old Sam Gardner's birthday, though Samwise was actually born on April 6 in Shire-reckoning only by coincidence of the calendar shift; others said it was the day on which the Golden Tree first flowered in 1420; and still others said it was the Elves' New Year. The date thus became a local festival, blending memories of the War of the Ring, the beauty of Lothlórien, and the simple joy of spring in the Shire.