A birthday is a time for celebration. Family and friends come together. A year gone well and another one coming up.
Modern birthday celebration
It is believed that the origins of modern birthday celebrations began in Memmingen, a village in Germany. That tradition is still followed today and is called Kinderfest. In the morning the birthday child used to get a cake with the number of candles equal to the years plus one. The extra candle symbolised best wishes for the coming year. This tradition dates back at least 400 years.
Birthday Candles
Greeks offered moon shaped candles to the lunar goddess, Artemis. This is how the tradition of blowing candles began on birthdays.
Birthday and the common people
It was not until the introduction of the modern Gregorian Calendar in 1582 which reached everyone’s home that common people were able to keep track of dates and birthdays. Before that there was the Roman calendar, Islamic calendar, Hebrew calendar and Vedic calendar. Ancient Indians kept a complex yet accurate calendar for keeping time to manage rituals.
But during the early civilisation, it was very difficult to track dates and time. That is why the record of birthdays were only for the rich and elite. It is the Egyptians who began recording birthdays reserved for pharaohs. Later the Greeks came with their candles. Finally Romans who introduced the concept of birthday celebrations for its regular citizens. Important people got public holidays in their name.
Birthday cake
Origin of a cake can be traced to Vikings and Greeks. But the first time a cake was baked for a birthday was by Romans. A special cake was baked for the 50th birthday. Later cakes were extensively used during Kinderfest. Cakes were expensive to bake. But the industrial revolution changed it all. That was the time when ingredients, tools and frosting reached everyone’s homes.
Ancient Christians were not ready to celebrate birthdays considering it a pagan ritual.
‘Happy Birthday To You’ song
This most popular song was never originally written. Mildred Hill, a school teacher, used to sing ‘Good morning to you’ to the class children in a Kentucky School in 1893. Her children modified the song to ‘Happy Birthday to you’.
History of cake smashing
It is believed that shoving the face of a baby on a cake began in Mexico. It is a tradition called Mordida. Babies and smashed cakes look cute on Instagram. It soon caught popularity in America, especially since the last ten years.
But smashing a birthday cake on adults is a tradition invented and followed widely only in India. Cake smashing in India is taken to the next level. So much so that there is a law in Gujarat which prohibits the practise.
So historically it proves that birthdays are indeed all about celebrations.
