What year is it in Catching Fire?

Answer 1

The Hunger Games trilogy is set in a future time. From the first book, Katniss informs the reader that the new North American nation Panem (derived from the concept espoused by the Roman satirist Juvenal, panem et circenses, "bread and circuses.") rose out of global environmental disaster.

Spoiler Alert!

The Hunger Games is set seventy-four years after the first Hunger Games, which were held the first year after the end of the District 13 uprising ends. Catching Fire then is set in the seventy-fifth year of the games. The time before the establishment of Panem is referred to the Dark Days. The Dark Days is an unspecified length of time, but can be speculated to be a hundred to a thousand years from our present time. There are few clues given in the book, likely intentionally on Ms. Collins' part, perhaps to focus on the characters and conflict in the story.