Hail and Well Met,
Inkling Elf!
* bows an introductory greeting * [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
To answer your question, here are slightly-amended copies of two posts I made in a thread called "Seasonal Symbolism."
1)Two obvious Biblical references, nay dates, that come to mind:
December 25 - The Fellowship of the Ring sets forth from Rivendell.
March 25 - The Ring is destroyed at Mt. Doom.
A journey from Christmas to Good Friday, perhaps?
2) For having done a brief bit of research, I wish to slightly amend my earlier comment.
According to a website called "From Bethlehem to Calvary," I should not have marked March 25th as Good Friday, but rather as Easter. (Though actually, while I am now proposing a connection between March 25th and Easter, I would still like to stand by Good Friday, due to all that Good Friday represents.)
quote:
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"The Jesus-story, it will now be seen, has a greater number of correspondences with the stories of former Sungods and with the actual career of the Sun through the heavens - so many indeed that they cannot well be attributed to mere coincidence or even to the blasphemous wiles of the Devil! Let us enumerate some of these. There are (1) birth from a Virgin mother; (2) the birth in a stable (cave or underground chamber); and (3) on the 25th December (just after the winter solstice). There is (4) the Star in the East (Sirius) and (5) the arrival of the Magi (the 'Three King's); there is (6) the threatened Massacre of the Innocents, and the consequent flight into a distant country (told also of Krishna and other Sungods). There are the Church festivals of (7) Candlemas (2nd February), with processions of candles to symbolize the growing light; of (8) Lent, or the arrival of Spring; of (9) Easter Day (normally on 25th March) to celebrate the crossing of the Equator by the Sun; and (10) simultaneously the outburst of lights at the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.
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The above quote comes from the website at the following URL:
http://www.netnews.org/bk/bethlehem/beth1019.html
And of course any speak soothly who say that the date on which Good Friday is commemorated varies from year to year.
* bows *
Gandalf the Grey