A Special Day to Observe and Reflect on Life’s Journey

On March 25, we celebrate the medieval poet Dante Alighieri and modern storyteller J.R.R. Tolkien.

Dante, poised between the mountain of purgatory and the city of Florence, in a detail, 1465, by Domenico di Michelino. Public Domain

The celebrations of two fictional journeys coincide on one day, christening the date as both Dante Day and Tolkien Reading Day—March 25.

Despite more than 600 years between the lives of the two literary greats, this date is no coincidence. This is when Dante Alighieri the pilgrim begins his journey through hell in “The Divine Comedy,” and the ring of power is cast into Mount Doom in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” The fact that this date figures into these two journeys makes sense considering the Christian beliefs of the two writers.