Birthday/Date of SH3 (SH3 spoilers)

Alright maybe I'm looking a tad too deep into things here, but I've always been curious about several things. Almost everyone who frequents this forum (lol 4 people!) for the most part probably agree that Silent Hill 1 occurs on April 20th, 1983, and that SH2 occurs sometime in May of 1994.

My curiosity leads me to ask, when did Silent Hill 3 take place? After some careful consideration I've come to the conclusion that Silent Hill 3 also occurs on April 20th, 2000 or it occurs sometime in the month of February. How did I reach this conclusion? The constant mention of Heather's birthday of course.

We know that Heather was born on April 20th, 1983 but we also learn that Harry raised Heather as Cheryl. This leads me to believe that Harry placed into Heather's mind that her birthday is sometime in March and not in April. (It's also hinted in Douglas's notebook that Heather is "24" but actually looks 17. Another clue that Harry was raising Heather as Cheryl.) However there is another birthday we have to contend with and that's Alessa's. We can tell that Alessa had turned seven before the events of the fire. Just about every supplementary guide and the game itself states she was seven when she was burned. We can also conclude based on the Play Novel and Harry's line "Just turned seven last month" that Alessa was burned sometime in March.

Now we could say that Alessa's birthday occured sometime in either January, February, or March. I am hesitant to state that her birthday is in March simply for the fact that this is the month that Cheryl was born. This leaves the months of January and February open. To be honest I do admit that her birthday could occur during and time in these two months. I'll be honest too in saying that pulling out the traits of the zodiac is too tempting here.

Hint: Pisces (February 19th - March 20th) is known as the most suicidal sign in the zodiac.

Now in Silent Hill 3 Heather repeats at least twice that "today is not her birthday." However there is one moment in the game where Heather finds a shotgun in a present box. Her comment upon finding the box is a curious one.

"A shotgun, but nobody would give me something this gross for my birthday."

Perhaps this is a translation error, but if it's not one has to wonder why Heather would hint that it's her birthday at this point, and then later on deny it. This makes me think that SH3 either occurs on her real birthday (April 20th) or on Alessa's birthday. (Jan, or Feb give or take.) and this also makes me think that Alessa was starting to seep more into Heather's conscious mind.

There, a long drawn out theory about when SH3 takes place. Who wants cake?

Maybe I'm forgetting something, but why exactly SH1 occurs in 1983? I remember the similar discussion on SHF a while back so the date of April 20th raises no doubts, but I don't remember the specific year being discussed -- only that the year of 1986 in the Alessa's diary was made up.

As for the theory, yes I believe the day SH3 takes place on could be the day of Alessa's birthday -- it would be very symbolical indeed and, of course, would explain all those birthday remarks.

BTW, Pisces also characterized by a strong and vivid imagination which fits with Alessa's character just perfectly.

It's a long explanation having to do with Tobias Archibald. Basically SH3 occurs a few years prior to SH4. SH3 occurs in 2000 so 2000-17=1983