(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CPeLA2nEi_4/SYFmLVuJQ9I/AAAAAAAADao/7Ot1mu3YMSw/s400/2009-01-28-Birthday+Candle.jpg)
Each year on 3 January, the Tolkien Society encourages Tolkien fans from across the world to celebrate the Professor’s birthday with a simple toast-drinking ceremony.
After Bilbo left the Shire on his eleventy-first birthday in The Lord of the Rings, Frodo toasted his uncle’s birthday each year on 22 September. J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein on 3 January 1892, and we invite you to celebrate the birthday of this much loved author by raising a glass at 9pm your local time.
The toast is simply:
The Professor!
All you need to do is stand, raise a glass of your choice of drink (not necessarily alcoholic), and say the words “The Professor” before taking a sip (or swig, if that’s more appropriate for your drink). Sit and enjoy the rest of your drink.
http://www.tolkiensociety.org/society/events/toast/
I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.
I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.
For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.
I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.
But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.
(LotR, Book II, the Ring goes South)
TO THE PROFESSOR!
To the Anglo-Saxon professor that we all love and admire;
A truly master of tales and of fantasy grand sire,
May he bathe in light, above the ramparts of heaven,
Nine Rings to Men, three to the deathless Elf, and to adamant Dwarves seven.
(http://www.theargonath.cc/stuff/fotrobservation61.jpg)