On what date did Frozen 2 take place?

So, Frozen 2 takes place in autumn. The falling leaves and the magical forest adorned with vibrant red and yellow foliage make it clear that the current season is autumn. Then, what would be the exact date Frozen 2 took place?

Since we’ve already delved into the chronological timeline of events in the Frozen universe in a previous post, let’s focus on finding the specific date for Frozen 2. Personally, I support the idea of setting the year when Frozen 2 occurred as 1847. You might have different perspectives, but it doesn’t really matter when discussing the date of Frozen 2, as both perspectives lead to the same conclusion.

Autumn

First things first, let’s nail down the season. It’s clearly autumn, judging from the presence of the maple trees and foliage in the enchanted forest. Furthermore, it would likely be one of September, October, or November if it’s autumn.

Harvest Festival

We may agree that it’s autumn. However, would it be possible to specify the date? In the film and novel series, this day is described as Arendelle’s harvest festival. Therefore, it might give us some insights into the overall timeline if we can determine when Arendelle’s harvest festival takes place each year.

Since no details on a specific date exist in the film, we need to check some other references such as novels or other media.

September 20th

In short, September 20th seems to be the most plausible date for Arendelle’s harvest festival, which would be the starting date for the events of Frozen 2. Here’s why.

Olaf’s interview

In the special issue of People: Frozen magazine, released after Frozen 2, there is an interview-like article about Olaf’s trip to the enchanted forest.

Last road trip: To the enchanted forests of the North. I’d recommend going in September; the foliage is great.

— p96, People: Frozen

This article introduces Olaf’s trip to the enchanted forest in an interview format, and he specifically mentions that it was September when he visited the enchanted forest. Another book I’ll refer to in the following post also states that it is September. Therefore, concluding that Frozen 2 took place in September might be safe.

Harvest festival

Some knowledge about the date of Arendelle’s harvest festival can be found in the book that covers Arendelle’s yearly life.

In this book, they mention that Arendelle’s harvest festival is on September 20th. Of course, we should acknowledge that this is not canon but just a side story like other junior books. However, setting September 20th as the date of Arendelle’s harvest festival coordinates with other events.

To understand this statement, we first need to recap the whole timeline within the film.

Event timeline

In Frozen 2, it takes 5 days for Elsa to resolve the problems in the enchanted forest since she left Arendelle. Here’s a brief timeline.

1. Day 1: Harvest festival
2. Day 2: Journey to the enchanted forest
3. Day 3: Enchanted Forest, Earth giants
4. Day 4: The wrecked ship, Ahtohallan
5. Day 5: Dam demolish, Elsa’s resurrection

And general Mattias also says that it took 34 years, 5 months, and 23 days since they got trapped in the enchanted forest.

Then, we can construct a brief timeline of each event as follows:

If we assume September 20th as Arendelle’s harvest festival, the day the enchanted forest closed becomes April 1st. I suspect this to be the most plausible for the following two reasons.

1. Dam completion ceremony
2. April Fool’s Day

Let’s consider each argument one by one.

Dam completion ceremony

Mattias and other Arendellian people ventured into the Enchanted Forest on this day to commemorate the completion (or a similar event) of the dam construction project, a long-standing collaboration between Arendelle and Northuldra. This event held significant importance, enriching the alliance between the two nations. Therefore, they would have chosen a meaningful date, such as April 1st.

In other words, if the harvest festival were not on September 20th, say, for instance, if it were on September 17th, the commemoration ceremony would have been held on a somewhat awkward date, such as March 29th.

Hence, to set the dam completion ceremony on April 1st, it seems appropriate to regard Arendelle’s harvest festival as September 20th, which leads to the conclusion that the Enchanted Forest was finally freed on September 23rd.

April Fool’s Day

Another aspect is related to the lie. Since all these events originated from King Runeard’s lie to the Northuldra people, it seems meaningful that it happened on April Fool’s Day. Of course, whether April Fool’s Day has any meaning in the Frozen universe still remains a question. Still, from the perspective of the observer in the real world, it would be quite an interesting interpretation.

Summary

The exact date when Frozen 2 took place seems to be September 20th. Two aspects, the dam completion ceremony between Arendelle and Northulda and April Fool’s Day, support this idea.