Birthdays

With my sisters birthday approaching, I've noticed that as we get older, we become less and less excited for our birthdays. People stop caring about presents, and basically the birthday is no longer a big celebration. Is this because we've had so many of them before? Why do we even celebrate birthdays with cake and presents? Where did the idea of birthdays come from? I decided to find out.


Birthday History
History of Birthday observance can be traced back before the rise of Christianity. In pagan culture it was believed evil spirits visited people on their birthdays. To protect the person having birthday from the evil effect, people used to surround him and make merry. A lot of noise used to be created in such parties to scare away the evil spirits. In those times there was no tradition of bringing gifts and guests attending the birthday party would bring good wishes for the birthday person. However, if a guest did bring gifts it was considered to be a good sign for the person of honor. Later, flowers became quite popular as a Birthday gift.

Early Records of Birthday Celebrations
Historians are certain that birthday celebrations are being held for quite sometimes but there are few records for the same. Documented descriptions of Birthday celebrations are available only for kings, high-ranking nobility and those who held high positions in the society. In the beginning common men and especially children were unable to celebrate the birthdays. Scholars believe that this difference existed because only the nobility was wealthy enough to throw birthday parties and was considered important enough to be written about.

Popular Birthday Celebrations in History
Best known birthday in the history is that of Jesus Christ. For nearly 2000 years since the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, Christians have been honoring the day as Christmas.
About 4,000 years ago King Pharaoh used to celebrate his birthday by giving a feast to his court followers.
King Herod is said to have celebrated his birthday by treating lords, high captains and special friends with a special supper party in Galiliee.
History of Popular Birthday Traditions and Symbols
Some of the popular Birthday traditions and symbols that we see today originated hundreds of years ago. Some believe the tradition of Birthday cake was started by early Greeks who used to take round or moon shaped cake to temple of Artemis - the Goddess of Moon. Others believe the custom of Birthday cake initiated in Germany where people used to make bread in the shape of baby Jesus’s swaddling cloth.

The popular custom of lighting candles on cake is said to have originated because Greeks used to light candles on the cake taken to Artemis to make it glow like a moon. Some though believe that custom originated because of a religious belief that gods lived in the sky and lighted candles helped to send a signal or prayers to the god. Germans are said to have placed a big candle in the centre of the cake to symbolize ‘the light of life’. Even today people make silent wishes as they blow out candles. It is believed that blowing out all candles in one breath brings good luck.


So, it seems that culture has made birthdays more than they ever were, kind of like everything else. America takes a holiday as an opportunity to commercialize it. Valentines day is less about love and more about chocolate, flowers, and teddy bears. Christmas is less about Jesus, and more about presents and christmas trees. Easter is less about Christ rising from the dead and more about easter egg hunts. Even St. Patricks day has become about parades, drinking, and cheesy "100% Irish" t shirts. We are all so materialistic that holidays are more celebration about stuff - less about what it's about. We can't lose the meaning in these holidays, in the simple things, because one day if we aren't careful our kids may not even know what these things are truly about. We are stuck in materialism, and it's only getting worse.



The funny part is, if manufacturers stopped making "stuff," we would all still survive. We don't need toys, 500 pairs of shoes, or the newest ipod. But nobody would ever stop, because nobody wants to stop the inflow of money. Is it a bad thing that our society runs off of money, or is that just the way the world works? Maybe it's not about the fact that we focus on money, but more about the fact that we forget to focus on things other than money. Maybe we can do both, we just haven't tried.