A little history of the Birthday

Tracking the Birthday

Believe it or not, birthdays were not always treated as the special events they are today. In fact, there are many households that spurn overzealous celebration nowadays. Even so, the entire congratulatory experience may seem weird. After all, isn’t it just a congratulations at having lived one year longer? That being said, the actual history of the celebration remains inconclusive, but that does leave room for some very interesting theories. 

The Beginning

Scholars on the lookout for the first mention of a birthday in the way we use it point to a biblical reference dating back to around 3,000 BCE. Unfortunately, there are other scholars that argue the text simply refers to the pharaoh’s date of ascension to god-hood, not an actual birthday celebration. Following this, it was the Greeks that added the next bit of party to the term. Originally, the Greek men and women would bake cakes for Artemis and then light candles on these cakes to make them appear more lunar in honor of the goddess’ domain. Many agree that this tradition then transferred over to birthday celebration. Finally, however, it was the Romans that actually began celebrating the everyman’s birthday, and this does mean every man, not woman. Some of the more prominent figureheads even got full on public holidays. 

Slow Evolution

It should come as no surprise to hear that the church, following the Roman Empire, did away with birthdays entirely. After all, a celebration by a pagan people was clearly evil. This ban lasted for a few hundred years. It wasn’t until they wanted to celebrate their own deity’s birthday that the rule changed and inevitably led to the common folk celebrating once more. Interestingly enough, though, it was the Germans that put together the idea of a birthday and the addition of cake and candles. This tradition was typically enacted for children and always featured an extra candle for good luck. However, this practice didn’t really become widespread until sugar was industrialized and made affordable for those that didn’t come from affluent families.

In the final act of the birth of the birthday, two women wrote a song in 1893 that was originally meant to be sung before class every morning by students across America. The tune turned out to be catchier than the words, and in 1924, the birthday song we all know and love came to be published.