REFLECTIONS ON BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

By:
Ajukura, Fidelis O.
ajukurafidelisobi@gmail.com
26th November, 2022

Two days ago was my birthday and expectedly, my children were excited. They were looking forward to a celebration of some sort because that has been our tradition - birthdays are accompanied by celebration. It does not need to be heavy but there's always the presence of a cake, drinks, singing and dancing. Unfortunately, "this is not going to be the case this in year's birthday for daddy" I told them. I had struggled to convince them that the economy could not allow me to celebrate it the usual way. However, I promised them that next year's birthday, by the grace of God will be splendid. I also went further to remind them that what is paramount is to, first and foremost thank God for adding yet another year to daddy's age and not necessarily the cake, the drinks and so on. This lifted their spirit a little bit until I announced to them that, in the evening when I return from work, we shall be having a light refreshment of soft drinks and snacks that their excitement returned. Many people including adults are like this; birthdays are seen as a period of enjoyment and merrymaking instead of a period of sober reflection. No wonder many, especially girls and ladies go the extra mile to ensure that their birthdays are celebrated in a grand style. To majority of the youths, birthdays are periods of carousing with friends and misbehaving.

By the way, what is birthday? "A birthday is the anniversary of the day on which a person was born typically treated as an occasion for celebration and giving of gifts". Birthdays have become a global practice - it permeates every culture of the world. Put differently, there is no culture today that is not familiar with the practice of birthdays. In fact, birthdays have become an integral part of human society. The rich and the poor alike celebrate birthdays: the difference lies in the weight of the celebration but one thing remains clear - birthday is birthday. Today, birthday celebrations have reached a level where infants or toddlers must have their birthdays celebrated either at homes or in schools. Birthdays have come to stay but, how did birthday start? Who introduced birthday? Birthday, obviously could not have originated in ancient or pre-literacy time because of the absence of a standard calendar. Although, history records that even in ancient times, men have always created methods of keeping track of days and larger divisions of time. The natural units for time keeping used by most historical societies are the day, the solar year and the lunation. Calendars are explicit schemes used for time keeping. The Egyptians are among the earliest to use the calendar.

Historians record that birthday started in Egypt. The first mention of birthday was in 3,000 BC and it was connected to a Pharaoh. This birthday however, was not about the day of birth of the Pharaoh but his birth as a "god". In ancient Egypt, Pharaohs were transformed to gods as soon as they are crowned or coronated. Thus, their birthdays commemorated their birth as "gods" because this was more important than their physical birth

Other cultures and civilizations like the ancient Greeks followed the Egyptians in celebrating the birth of a god but the Greeks differed a little bit in the sense that they celebrated by lighting candles when a child is born, the essence of this was to ward off wandering evil spirits. Birthdays for the ancient Greeks was purely for protective purpose.

The Romans were the first to celebrate man's physical birth. To the Romans, birthdays were special celebrations; they were not connected to religion.

In the Christian faith, birthdays were initially considered to be a pagan celebration because of the issue of "original sin". Later, this thought was abandoned and Christians began to celebrate birthdays e.g., Jesus' birthday (even though Christ did not mention or order it - Christmas). The Romans encouraged this celebration

Birthday celebrations have continued till German bakers invented 'birthday cake'. The Germans also invented the idea of placing lighted candles atop a cake and blowing them out while making wishes.

Following the advancement and spread of many bakeries in Europe, many people began to have access to cakes. Prior to this time, only the wealthy or noble could afford birthday cakes. Many historians believe that this is the reason for wearing a birthday crown.

Birthdays, as we have them today is a practice that has come a long way. Birthdays, over the years have passed through different phases. Although, the fact that birthdays are celebrated across different cultures of the world does not mean that there are no cultural signatures. For instance, the attire, songs and dance steps of birthday celebrations in India may not be the same with those of Iran or Thailand. This is placing birthday celebration under the lense of culture. The slight differences notwithstanding, what is paramount is that "birthday is the anniversary of the day a person was born - it is usually accompanied with celebration".