What time is it always at the Mad Hatter's tea party?

At the Mad Hatter’s tea party, it is always six o’clock. The Hatter explains that he quarrelled with Time, so Time has stopped the clock at six—the traditional hour for afternoon tea.

Alice encounters the Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse in Chapter 7, “A Mad Tea-Party,” of Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel. Because the clock is permanently stuck at tea time, the characters remain trapped in an endless cycle of tea, arguments, riddles, and moving around the table.

This scene is often confused with the “unbirthday” party from Disney’s 1951 film, where the characters celebrate a day that is not the guest’s birthday. The book’s original tea party is stranger and more repetitive: the Hatter says there is no room because the table is already set, even though the characters continually change places.