birthday

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Candles spell out the traditional English birthday greeting

A birthday, as the term implies, is the anniversary of the particular day on which a person was born. Though by no means universal, such occasions 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.

Cultural and legal conventions

In most legal systems, one becomes a legal adult on a particular birthday (often 18th or 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, vehicle driving licenses, etc.^{[citation needed]}

Many cultures have one or more coming of age birthdays:

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

• In some Christian traditions, generally Catholic and Anglican, Confirmation is the ritual by which a young person receives a Sacrament thought to bestow certain gifts of the Holy Spirit. The timing of the reception of this Sacrament serves, on a sociological level, as a sort of "rite of passage" into adulthood.

• In Hispanic countries the quinceañera celebration traditionally marks a girl's 15th birthday.^{[citation needed]}

• Some girls and a few boys in the United States have "sweet sixteen" birthday parties.^{[citation needed]}

• 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 brambhins culture.^{[citation needed]}

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, more commonly 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 France, Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, or Greece, it is common to have a 'name day'/'Saint's day'. 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").

Alternative birthdays

People born on February 29, which occurs only during leap years, often celebrate their birthday in other years on February 28, or March 1 (the first day they have, measured in whole years, a new age). .

In school, a half-birthday or other unbirthday is sometimes celebrated for those whose birthdays do not fall on a school day (especially for birthdays falling during holiday and vacation periods).

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 of Nazareth's traditional birthday is celebrated as Christmas Day around the world: 25 December. As some Eastern churches use the Julian calendar, 25 December falls on 7 January in the Gregorian calendar every year until 2100.
• The King's or Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom; in Canada this day is known as Victoria Day.
• The Grand Duke's Official Birthday in Luxembourg: 23 June.
• Koningsdag or Koninginnedag in the Kingdom of the Netherlands is fixed on 30 April (Queen's Day; celebration of the reigning Queen's accession). 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.
• The 21st of August is the date on which the Irish celebrate the birthday of Aoife Cooper, the Druid Queen who was driven mad by secret love (Paramour).

While it is uncommon to have an official holiday for a republican head of state's birthday, this can become a permanent posthumous honour, for example George Washington's and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays are celebrated together as Presidents' Day.

Frequency

According to public record births database Anybirthday.com, birthdays are evenly distributed throughout the year, except for the months of October and September, which follow the holiday season by nine months. The most frequent birthday is cited as October 5, with an average of 12,576 people born each year, while the least frequent birthday is cited as May 22 with an average of 10,259 persons born annually.^[1]

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 special candles are substituted for the many individual candles in the shape of a numeral. 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 there may be two candles on the cake, one in the shape of the numeral one followed by the other in the shape of the number zero.

In addition to parties, it is common for people to receive gifts on their birthdays or surprise parties. The popular gifts include toys, books, jewellery, clothes, flowers, techical 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.^[2]

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, "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 "Iyi ki dogdun, Mutlu Yillar Sana" in Turkish.^{[citation needed]}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^[3].

Religious opposition

Judaism

In Judaism, the perspective on birthday celebrations is disputed by various rabbis.^[4] 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,^[5] while Leviticus 18:1-3 states "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived". Note: You shall not do as they do in Egypt can pertain to a lot of things not specifically a birthday. It also seems to suggest not to as an opinion other than saying specifically not to.

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

Since the foundation of Christianity historically lies in Judaism, if there is a stance against the celebration of birthdays, it often mirrors the Jewish religious arguments. Few branches of Christianity, however, actually hold any official stance in regards to birthdays, be it in favour or against. Orthodox Christianity prefers the celebration of name days only, though it is not because of any active theologically-based prohibition or discouragement. Some Christian communities, especially in the Hispanosphere, celebrate both naming days and birthdays. Jehovah's Witnesses and some Sacred Name groups, among others, do not celebrate birthdays at all, actively discouraging or prohibiting it. They point to, for example, the birthday celebrations in the Bible for Pharaoh and for Herod, the latter being the occasion for the beheading of John the Baptist.

In the branches of Christianity where there is active discouragement or prohibition against birthdays, by default, this also affects their stance in regards to Christmas. After all, in its religiously-presented form, Christmas is the commemoration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, that is, a birthday celebration for Jesus. Hence, Jehovah's Witnesses do not espouse the celebration of Christmas either, although additional theological arguments are also cited. Because of the very existence of Christmas as an integral celebration espoused by most branches of modern Christianity, it could be argued that this constitutes implicit acceptance of birthdays, contrary to this, it might put into question the legitimacy of Christmas altogether.

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
• Astrology
  • Natal chart
  • Horoscope
• Unbirthday
• Decimal Birthday
• Sashtiabdhapoorthi
• Birthstones

References

Further reading

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

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