The history of celebrating birthdays

Everyone gets excited for the special day when a person turns a year older. Maybe, as a child, a person had a lot of fun birthdays with gifts and friends. Maybe, as someone older, that person thinks about how years are passing by so fast. There is no doubt that the birthday is a significant day that everybody remembers.

Yet how is it that people even choose to celebrate such a day? Where did it start?

The concept of celebrating birthdays came from the Pagans. Historically, Muslim, not even Christians, celebrated their birthdays. Pagans believed that evil spirits lurked on days of significant changes, such as a day become a year older. The Greeks even believed that each person had a spirit attending their birthday to keep watch.

Ancient Romans were the first to celebrate birthday for the common man, instead of just for dieties, and it all starts from there.

The Greeks, who most likely got the idea of celebrating birthdays from the Egyptians, offered moon-shaped cakes to Artemis the lunar gods with candles lit on top. This is probably where cakes were first traditionally lit on top of cakes.

The most contemporary form of birthday celebrations comes from Kinderfeste in the late 18th century Germany. Originally invented by bakers, the tradition is for children to celebrate the day of their birth with candle lit cakes, as many candles as their age, and an extra one for the hope of living at least one more year. Blowing the candles and making a wish were also a part of these celebrations.

According to the Guiness Book of World Records, the “Happy Birthday To You” song is the most recognisable song in the English language. In 1893, two school teachers from Kentucky, Patty and Mildred Hill wrote the song “Good Morning To All” with that very familiar tune. It’s unclear where the change in the words to “Happy Birthday To You” came from, but in 1933 the song was in an Irving Berlin musical. One of the sisters later even sued, in an argument for holding the copyright to the song. Some even believe that the song is under copyright till the year 2030 and the owner of the copyright splits with the Hill’s estate, reportedly $2 million a year.  So the next time the special day comes to you, think about where it all came from. Happy Brithday.