Question on midnight significance in magic.

[Belial666]

Assuming midnight is very important in a ritual, would the canonical midnight count (when the clock says it's midnight) or literal midnight? (the temporally equidistant moment from sunset to sunrise)

The two are close but not the same.

[Tbora]

Literal midnight.

Magic cares for the metaphysics, not what a man made clock says.

[Deadmanwalking]

While I agree, depending on the nature of the magic, canonical midnight might work too. As Harry goes into, a lot of magic is in your head, if it's really your belief in Midnight that's important then either would work (much like Harry's discussion on color in POroven Guilty).

Now, if it's to do with the natural magic flows of the world, then it would need to be literal midnight, but that's actually pretty rare.