Specific day

Question

Why would the day of birth be à la? I understand from the text that a la is generally ´the day' and le jour de is a specific day.  On the question Laurent est né ________ Saint-Patrick, the answer is contradictory. Please help clarify.

Answer

Bonjour Meghna,
The lesson example is thus:
Note that when talking about doing something on a name day, you can use both à la + Saint(e) name or le jour de la + Saint(e) name.
While à la is more general, le jour de la insists a bit more on the very day.
Note also that in French name days are feminine, even with masculine names. It's because they're considered as la fête de (the celebration of) that name. 
Therefore, you will always say à la + name day, or le jour de la + name day.
Je suis né à la Saint-Georges.
(I was born on St George's day.)
Je suis né le jour de la Saint-Georges.
(I was born on St George's day.)
 
Laurent est né à la (fête de) Saint-Patrick  [more general]
Laurent est né le jour de (la fête de) Saint-Patrick [the very day]

Another way of looking at this is with the phrase:  salade à la Niçoise
which could be translated salad in the Nice manner, a somewhat generalized
description.  Looking at it in this manner helped me to differentiate because
la salade de Niçoise is much more specific in meaning.
This was a very good question; I had not learned this previously, myself.
Merci!

Answer

Thanks Ron.
Then does this mean that I should not have been marked wrong for using le jour de in the question in my original query?

Answer

It may be that

Answer

you were marked wrong if you used le jour de - rather than le jour de laI was marked wrong as well - it took me a while to work it out.

Answer

I’ve just wasted time on the same issue before I realised that I missed off the « la »; but I also wish the corrected answer was not « à la » for what appears a very specific day. Did anyone else go to Stage 3 to request a change ?