Birthday

For other uses, see Birthday (disambiguation).

Candles spell out the traditional English birthday greeting

A birthday, as the term implies, is the day or anniversary of the particular day on which a person was born. Though by no means universal, birthdays are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with a party or, in some instances, a rite of passage. Though major religious traditions such as the Buddhist or the Christian celebrate the birth of their founders, the most obvious example of which is Christmas, principled opposition to the very idea of celebrating birthdays is to be found among certain religious groups.

History

Herodotus considers Achaemenid Persians (Iranians), among first who celebrated birthday. He states that: "Of all the days in the year, the one which they celebrate most is their birthday. It is customary to have the board furnished on that day with an ampler supply than common... They eat little solid food but abundance of dessert, which is set on table a few dishes at a time... They are very fond of wine."

Cultural and legal conventions

In most legal systems, one becomes a legal adult on a particular birthday (often 14th through 21st), and at different ages gains different rights and responsibilities – voting, certain drug use (for example, alcohol, purchasing tobacco), eligibility for military conscription or voluntary enlistment, purchasing lottery tickets, obtaining vehicle driving licenses, etc.

Many cultures have one or more coming of age birthdays:

• Jewish boys become bar mitzvah on their 13th birthday. Jewish girls become bat mitzvah on their 12th birthday, or sometimes on their 13th birthday in Reform and Conservative Judaism.

• In Hispanic-American countries the quinceañera celebration traditionally marks a girl's 15th birthday.

• In India, the 12th or 13th birthday is replaced with a grand "thread ceremony." The child takes a blessed thread and wears it, symbolizing his coming of age. This ceremony is more common amongst boys in the Hindu Brahmin culture.

• In the Philippines, girls on their 18th birthday or boys on their 21st birthday celebrate a debut.

• In some Asian countries that follow the Zodiac calendar, there is a tradition of celebrating the 60th birthday.

The birthdays of historically significant people, like national heroes or founders, are often commemorated by an official holiday. Some saints are remembered by a liturgical feast (sometimes on a presumed birthday). By analogy, the Latin term Dies natalis is applied to the anniversary of an institution (such as a university).

A person's Golden or Grand Birthday, also referred to as their "Lucky Birthday", "Champagne Birthday" or "Star Birthday", occurs when they turn the age of their birth day (e.g., when someone born on the 25th of the month turns 25).

Name days

In some Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox countries such as Spain, France, Poland, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, or Greece and Latvia it is common to have a 'name day'/'Saint's day'. It's common in Latin America too. This is celebrated in much the same way as a birthday, but is held on the official day of a saint with the same Christian name as the birthday person; the difference being that one may look up a person's name day in a calendar, or easily remember common name days (for example, John or Mary); however in pious traditions, the two were often made to concur by giving a newborn the name of a saint celebrated on its birthday, or even the name of a feast, for example, Noel or Pascal (French for Christmas and "of Easter"); for one, Togliatti got Palmiro as first name because he was born on Palm Sunday.

Monthly Birthdays

It is not uncommon for parents to track their child's age using months. This is logical, since there is such tremendous development from one month to the next for children under two years in age. After this point the most common tradition is to celebrate birthdays annually. Recently, in an effort to consciously move away from the stigma of age and simultaneously celebrate daily life, a new trend has developed to celebrate Monthly Birthdays.

Annual Birthdays are typically a celebration of the individual, often with a group gathering to focus attention on the birthday boy or girl. In contrast, Monthly Birthdays are about seizing the day. "Monthlies," as they are often called, are a reminder to enjoy life, and take advantage of all the great things around you.

Monthly birthdays also give you the added benefit of excellent numerology. Specific attention is typically focused on base-ten graduations, but creative types prefer interesting number patterns such as 111, 321 ("3, 2, 1 Blast-off Birthday"), 327 (3 cubed is equal to 27), and so on. Additionally, little cultural association is placed on monthly

Official birthdays

Colored lanterns at the Lotus Lantern Festival in Seoul, South Korea, celebrating the Buddha's birthday

Some notables, particularly monarchs, have an official birthday on a fixed day of the year, which may not necessarily match their actual birthday, but on which celebrations are held. Examples are:

• Jesus Christ's traditional birthday is celebrated as Christmas Day around the world, on December 25. As some Eastern churches use the Julian calendar, December 25 will fall upon January 7 in the Gregorian calendar.
• The Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, as well as the United Kingdom; in Canada, this day is known as Victoria Day.
• The Grand Duke's Official Birthday in Luxembourg is typically celebrated upon June 23..
• Koninginnedag in the Kingdom of the Netherlands is typically celebrated upon April 30. Queen Beatrix fixed it at the birthday of her mother, the previous Queen, to avoid the winter weather associated with her own birthday in January.

While it is uncommon to have an official holiday for a republican head of state's birthday, this does occur; for example, George Washington's birthday is celebrated as Presidents' Day.

Frequency

According to a public record births database, birthdays in the United States are quite evenly distributed for the most part. However, there tend to be more births in September and October. This may be because there is holiday season nine months before, or from the fact that the longest nights of the year happen in the Northern Hemisphere nine months before as well. October 5 is considered to be the most populous birthday in the United States.

Celebrations

Main article: Birthday customs and celebrations

A child's birthday celebration, complete with cake

The birthday cake is traditionally highly decorated, and typically covered with lit candles when presented, the number of candles signifying the age of the celebrant. The person whose birthday it is may make a silent wish and then blow out the candles. After that, the person can open their presents. It is also common for the person celebrating their birthday to cut the initial piece of the cake as a newlywed couple might with a wedding cake.

Each item was associated with a prediction. For example, a person finding a gold coin in a birthday cake would supposedly become wealthy; a person discovering a thimble would never marry.

Sometimes, instead of many individual candles, special candles in the shape of a numeral are used to decorate the cake. For example, on the first birthday, there may be one candle on the cake in the shape of the numeral one, and on the tenth birthday, clothes, flowers, technical devices, etc. However, sometimes it is expected of the person celebrating their birthday to treat their party guests instead; this varies depending on the local culture and may involve party gifts or other gestures, for example inviting to the restaurant or bar (some of them offer special birthday programs), arranging party at home, or at work.

In most English-speaking countries it is traditional to sing the song Happy Birthday to You to the honored person celebrating a birthday. Happy Birthday songs are common worldwide. Similar songs exist in other languages such as "Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le" in Mandarin Chinese, "Lang zal hij/zij leven" in Dutch, "Õnne soovime Sul" in Estonian, "Zum Geburtstag Viel Glück" in German, "Nα ζήσεις και χρόνια πολλά " in Greek, "Hayom Yom HUledet" in Hebrew, "Que los cumplas feliz" or "Feliz cumpleaños a ti" in Spanish, "Parabéns a você" in Portuguese, "Maligayang Bati" in Filipino, "Sto lat" in Polish, "Lá Breithe Shona Duit" in Irish, "multi ani traiasca" in Romanian, "I dag er det Johannes fødselsdag" in Danish, "Ja må du leva" or "Med en enkel tulipan" in Swedish, "Joyeux Anniversaire" or "Bonne Fête" in French, "Tanti Auguri a te" in Italian and "Doğum günün kutlu olsun" in Turkish. This song is a common greeting used on birthdays, along with greeting cards and verbal greetings with messages such as "I wish you a Happy Birthday" or "Happy Birthday."

Timezones and birthdays

A person's birthday is usually recorded according to the time zone of the place of birth. Thus people born in Samoa at 11:30 pm will record their birthdate as one day before Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and those born in the Line Islands will record their birthdate one day after UTC. They will apparently be born two days apart, while some of the apparently older ones may be younger in hours. Those who live in different time zones from their birth often exclusively celebrate their birthdays at the local time zone. In addition, the intervention of Daylight Saving Time can result in a case where a baby born second being recorded as having been born up to an hour before their predecessor.

Leap day

See: Leapling and February 29 #Births

Religious opposition

Judaism

In Judaism, the perspective on birthday celebrations is disputed by various rabbis. In the Hebrew Bible, the one single mention of a celebration being held in commemoration of someone's day of birth is for the Egyptian Pharaoh. . In addition, in the Greek Scriptures, King Herod beheaded a Christian, John the Baptizer, at his birthday celebration.

The bar mitzvah of 13-year-old Jewish boys, or bat mitzvah for 12-year-old Jewish girls, is perhaps the only Jewish celebration undertaken in what is often perceived to be in coalition with a birthday. However, the essence of a bar/bat mitzvah celebration is entirely religious in origin (i.e. the attainment of religious maturity according to Jewish law) and not secular, despite modern celebrations where the secular "birthday" element often overshadows the essence of it as a religious rite. With or without the "birthday" celebration, the child nevertheless becomes a bar or bat mitzvah, and the celebration can be on that day or any date after it.

Christianity

The early Christians did not celebrate Christ's birth because they considered the celebration of anyone's birth to be a pagan custom. Few branches of Christianity today hold an official stance on birthdays. Orthodox Christianity prefers the celebration of name days only, though not for theological reasons. Some Christian communities, especially in the Hispanosphere, celebrate both naming days and birthdays. Jehovah's Witnesses and some Sacred Name groups refrain from celebrating birthdays on the basis that they are portrayed in a negative light in the Bible and have historical connections with magic, superstitions, and Paganism.

Superstitious origins of celebrations

A number of possible superstitious origins for customs associated with birthday celebrations have been suggested. One source states that the tradition of birthday parties started in Europe. It was feared that evil spirits were particularly attracted to people on their birthdays and to protect them, they would be visited by friends and family, who would bring good thoughts and wishes.

See also

• Various birthdays are mentioned on the pages devoted to each day of the year, from January 1 to December 31.
• Birthday paradox
• Birthday attack
• East Asian age reckoning - a different method of age reckoning to birthdays that is used in some Asian countries.
• Half-birthday
• Death anniversary/ Yahrzeit
• Unbirthday
• Decimal Birthday
• Sashtiabdhapoorthi
• Birthstones

Further reading

• Curtis Regan, Dian (March 1991). The Class With the Summer Birthdays. Henry Holth & Co. ISBN 978-0805016574.