I think that there is no such tradition of celebrating the birthday (for the grown-ups except the children) in any countries, but it probably depends on the individual family & friend birthday treatment and it may be all different from the each families & friends. I noticed that the parents generally celebrate their children with their children’s friends who the children choose & individually send the invitation cards (so that they will know how many children attend, for the preparation), in UK where I now live but not in Korea where I come from.
For the grown-ups they occasionally invite some family or friends and have a small celebration in GB and in Korea as well. However, in fact we don’t commonly celebrate our birthday as a big event but the family will generally have a small family meal together with the traditional menu (always including the seaweed soup) in Korea, except 100 days & 1 year birthday parties as we eventually count the 9 months in the mum’s womb from the start of the pregnancy till the delivery of the baby. When 100 days comes, the baby will be 1 year old (100 days plus 9 months) in Korea, so we celebrate their 100 days birthday because they safely come out to the world and start the new life in real, and then 1 year old (actually we say 2 years old) parties are very important for them, especially for the first boys, because they are the one who are actually able to sit and stand before the family, and also who will keep up in their traditional family root & inherit from their family clan one day in the near future as they grown up. These traditions are well practicing by the Korean families even today. If you are born in the huge family clan and living together with the third generations, and you could possibly have three grandparents as more than hundreds of relatives possibly living altogether in one village. So you can’t imagine how big party can be taken place & how many people will participate for the 100 days or 1 year old 1st Son’s birthday party.
Please describe your traditions if you have, or tell us your opinion or experience of birthday celebrations.
Comments
The Presents: Presents are opened as soon as the children are awake. They can't wait for the birthday cake later in the day!
The Cards: Friends and family send birthday cards. Sending birthday cards is a custom that began in England about 100 years ago.
The Party: The birthday child will have a party to which friends and family are invited. Visitors to the party bring presents for the birthday child. The children play games such as musical chairs and pass the parcel.
The Cake: The birthday cake is decorated on a theme. A candle for each year is lit and placed on top and the child blows out the candles making a wish. We don't put objects inside the cake as stated on many websites.
The Bumps: It used to be traditional for the birthday child to have the bumps. Friends would hold the child by the legs and under the arms and lift the child up and down bumping them gently on the ground. The number of bumps given is the age of the child plus one for extra good luck. As this can be dangerous, clapping is often done instead.
School/Work: Some children do take sweets into school to share with their classmates on their birthdays. Adults also take cakes into their work place to celebrate their birthdays.
It's quite interesting.....! Thank you so much for that!
They said, the Jewish have special Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations at 13, some Americans consider “Sweet 16″ or 21 a special birthday, and Koreans have special birthday at 1 year old as I said above, and 60 years old; living to the age of sixty used to be a cause for a huge celebration, bringing old friends and distant family together to recognize the honoured person’s longevity. But these days, with people living longer and healthier, turning sixty is less remarkable than it used to be. So seventy has become the new sixty, and people are more likely to throw a big celebration on the occasion of someone’s seventy-first birthday this day.
In our country, the 1st and the 7th birthdays are the most important.. It should be celebrated because if not, as our belief, the child will grown to be sickly all the time...
But I have question my friend, do you know where birthdays celebration came from?
The real root of birthday? Do you have any idea when was the earliest celebration, who and how people celebrate it?