Birthday

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Birthday (raised: Cradle Feast) refers to both the day of the birth of a person and the anniversary of this event.

The anniversaries are named with the number of years since birth, so on the first return of the day of birth (1st birthday) a child is 1 year old. On the following day, he already enters the age of 2 at the age of 1 year and 1 day, which he concludes with the 2nd birthday after 12 months, etc.

A common custom is to celebrate your birthday with friends and relatives. For children, in addition to the celebration with relatives, children's birthday parties are common. In many countries, it is also common to gift the person. Likewise, there is also the custom that a person gives something to others on his birthday. Another common birthday custom is to decorate a birthday cake or birthday cake with exactly the number of candles corresponding to the birthday.

It is common to congratulate a person on their birthday or to sing a birthday song. In many parts of the world, the English song Happy Birthday is common. If it is not possible to congratulate in person, it is customary as a gesture of attention to send a birthday greeting by post, phone call, e-mail or SMS message. While it is supposedly unfortunate in Germany to congratulate before the birthday, in some regions of Austria the congratulations and the celebration on the eve are common.

Special birthdays are the age of majority or round birthdays (e.g. 30, 50, 75, ...), for which there may be other special customs regionally. These include, for example, the box ring, i.e. Sock wreath for the 25th or the cathedral stairs sweep for the 30th birthday.

The term birthday is also figuratively used for (founding) anniversary (of a company, institution, building, etc.), e.g. “port birthday”; the establishment, establishment or opening is in this case considered to be ‘birth’.

Origin
Cultural historically, the modern custom of birthday celebration dates back to the early high culture of Ancient Egypt as well as the culture of antiquity (Greeks and Romans). Among the Egyptians, the birthday celebration was held in honor of the king (Pharaoh), son of the heavenly deities. For the Greeks and Romans, however, the birthday celebration served to invoke guardian spirits to save the celebrated person from evil. Birthday gifts were a sacrifice to the guardian spirit. Ancestral memory also played a role. Originally, monthly celebrations, mostly of communities born on the same day, were common. A reference to gods supposedly born on the same day was the connecting thing. Invitations, blessings, gifts, speeches and poems were common.

According to Herodotus (5th century BC), the birthday of all days in the year is the one that the Persians celebrate the most. It is customary for the T