What was Bilbo Baggins’s birthday in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional calendar?

Bilbo Baggins’s birthday in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional calendar was 22 September.

Bilbo was born on 22 September in the year 2890 of the Third Age. Tolkien uses that date as a major biographical detail in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Bilbo’s birthday party at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring is held on his eleventy-first birthday, while Frodo celebrates his thirty-third birthday on the same day.

The shared birthday is important because it gives Tolkien a natural way to connect the two hobbits. Bilbo’s departure from the Shire follows the party, and Frodo later inherits the One Ring. The date is also remembered in the real world as Hobbit Day, part of Tolkien Week in many fan traditions.

22 September should not be confused with Tolkien’s own birthday, which was 3 January. Nor is it the date of the Ring’s destruction; in Tolkien’s chronology, the One Ring is destroyed on 25 March of the Third Age.