Birthday

For other uses, see Birthday (disambiguation).

Candles spell out the traditional English birthday greeting

A birthday is a day or anniversary where a person celebrates his or her date of birth. Birthdays are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with a gift, party or rite of passage. Although the major religions celebrate the birth of their founders (e.g., Buddha's Birthday), Christmas – which is celebrated widely by Christians and non-Christians alike – is the most prominent example. In contrast, certain religious groups, as is the case with Jehovah's Witnesses, express principled opposition to the very idea of celebrating birthdays.

Legal conventions

In most legal systems, one becomes a legal adult on a particular birthday (often the 14th through 21st), and reaching age-specific milestones confers particular rights and responsibilities. At certain ages, one may become subject to military conscription or become eligible to enlist in the military, to marry without parental consent, to vote, to run for elected office, to legally purchase (or consume) alcohol and tobacco products, to purchase lottery tickets, or to obtain a driver's license.

Cultural conventions

Many cultures have one or more coming of age birthdays:

File:18th Birthday.jpg

Celebration of a traditional Chilean birthday.

Little girl in traditional US birthday hat

• Jewish boys become bar mitzvah on their 13th birthday. Jewish girls become bat mitzvah on their 12th birthday, or sometimes on their 13th birthday in Reform and Conservative Judaism. This marks the transition where they become obligated in commandments of which they were previously exempted and are counted as part of the community.
• In North America, families often mark a girl's 16th birthday with a Sweet sixteen (birthday) celebration.
• In some Hispanic-American countries the quinceañera celebration traditionally marks a girl's 15th birthday.
• In India, Hindus have the 12th or 13th birthday replaced with a grand "thread ceremony." The child takes a blessed thread and wears it, symbolizing his coming of age. This is called the Upanayana. This ceremony is practiced amongst boys in the Hindu Brahmin culture.
• In the Philippines, girls on their 18th birthday or boys on their 21st birthday celebrate a debut.
• In some Asian countries that follow the Zodiac calendar, there is a tradition of celebrating the 60th birthday.
• In Japan there is a Coming of Age Day, for all of those who have turned 20.

The birthdays of historically significant people, like national heroes or founders, are often commemorated by an official holiday. Catholic saints are remembered by a liturgical feast (sometimes on a presumed birthday). By analogy, the Latin term Dies natalis is applied to the anniversary of an institution (such as a university).

A person's Golden or Grand Birthday, also referred to as their "Lucky Birthday", "Champagne Birthday" or "Star Birthday", occurs when they turn the age of their birth day (e.g., when someone born on the 25th of the month turns 25).

Name days

In some Roman Catholic & Eastern Orthodox countries such as Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and throughout South America, it is common to have a 'name day'/'Saint's day'. It is celebrated in much the same way as a birthday, but is held on the official day of a saint with the same Christian name as the birthday person; the difference being that one may look up a person's name day in a calendar, or easily remember common name days (for example, John or Mary); however in pious traditions, the two were often made to concur by giving a newborn the name of a saint celebrated on its birthday, or even the name of a feast, for example, Noel or Pascal (French for Christmas and "of Easter"); for one, Togliatti got Palmiro as first name because he was born on Palm Sunday.

Official birthdays

Colored lanterns at the Lotus Lantern Festival in Seoul, South Korea, celebrating the Buddha's birthday

Some notables, particularly monarchs, have an official birthday on a fixed day of the year, which may not necessarily match their actual birthday, but on which celebrations are held. Examples are:

• Jesus Christ's traditional birthday is celebrated as Christmas Day around the world, on December 25. As some Eastern churches use the Julian calendar, December 25 will fall upon January 7 in the Gregorian calendar.
• The Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
• The Grand Duke's Official Birthday in Luxembourg is typically celebrated upon June 23.
• Koninginnedag in the Kingdom of the Netherlands is typically celebrated upon April 30. Queen Beatrix fixed it at the birthday of her mother, the previous Queen, to avoid the winter weather associated with her own birthday in January.
• The current Japanese Emperor Akihito's birthday is December 23, which is a national holiday in Japan.
• The previous Japanese Emperor Showa (Hirohito)'s birthday was April 29. After his death, the holiday was kept as "Showa no Hi", or "Showa Day". This holiday falls close to Golden Week, the week in late April and early May

While it is uncommon to have an official holiday for a head of state's birthday in a republic, this does occur; for example, George Washington's birthday in the United States, which is commonly called Presidents Day.

Frequency

According to a public record births database, birthdays in the United States are quite evenly distributed for the most part. However, there tend to be more births in September and October. This may be because there is a holiday season nine months before, or from the fact that the longest nights of the year happen in the Northern Hemisphere nine months before as well. October 5 is considered to be the most common birthday in the United States, while May 22 is considered to be the least common birthday in the United States.

Time zones and birthdays

A person's birthday is usually recorded according to the time zone of the place of birth. Thus people born in Samoa at 11:30 pm will record their birthdate as one day before Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and those born in the Line Islands will record their birthdate one day after UTC. They will apparently be born two days apart, while some of the apparently older ones may be younger in hours. Those who live in different time zones from their birth often exclusively celebrate their birthdays at the local time zone. In addition, the intervention of Daylight Saving Time can result in a case where a baby born second is recorded as having been born up to an hour before their predecessor.

Leap day

See: Leapling and February 29

Birthdays and religion

Judaism

In Judaism, the perspective on birthday celebrations is disputed by various rabbis. In the Hebrew Bible, the one single mention of a celebration being held in commemoration of someone's day of birth is for the Egyptian Pharaoh which is recorded in Genesis 40:20.

The bar mitzvah of 13-year-old Jewish boys, or bat mitzvah for 12-year-old Jewish girls, is perhaps the only Jewish celebration undertaken in what is often perceived to be in coalition with a birthday. However, the essence of a bar/bat mitzvah celebration is entirely religious in origin (i.e. the attainment of religious maturity according to Jewish law) and not secular, despite modern celebrations where the secular "birthday" element often overshadows the essence of it as a religious rite. With or without the "birthday" celebration, the child nevertheless becomes a bar or bat mitzvah, and the celebration can be on that day or any date after it.

Christianity

The early Christians did not celebrate Christ's birth because they considered the celebration of anyone's birth to be a pagan custom. Few branches of Christianity today hold an official stance on birthdays. Orthodox Christianity prefers the celebration of name days only, though not for theological reasons. Some Christian communities, especially in the Hispanosphere, celebrate both naming days and birthdays. Jehovah's Witnesses and some Sacred Name groups refrain from celebrating birthdays on the basis that they are portrayed in a negative light in the Bible and have historical connections with magic, superstitions, and Paganism.

In the Greek Scriptures, King Herod beheaded John the Baptist, at his birthday celebration. In the Book of Job, reading first Job 1:4 and then Job 3:1–3, it is seen that the children of righteous Job had special banquets. (Job 1:4 Does not say anywhere that these were on their birthdays, it just states that they did not all hold them on the same day, but they took turns). The original Hebrew words for "day" and "birthday" are different, each having its own meaning. For example, in Genesis 40:20; "Now on the third day it turned out to be Phar′aoh's birthday"). The Hebrew word for day is yohm. The Hebrew word for birthday is a compound of the two Hebrew words yohm(the day) and (hul·le′dheth). In this context, Genesis 40:20; "Now on the third day [yohm] it turned out to be Pharaoh's birthday [literally, "the day (yohm) of the birth (hul·le′dheth) of Pharaoh"]." So it is certain that Job 1:4 does not refer to a birthday, as is unquestionably the case at Genesis 40:20. It would seem that Job's seven sons held a family gathering (possibly a spring or harvest festival) and as the feasting made the week-long circuit, each son hosted the banquet in his own house "on his own day." Job 3:1–3 does not talk about a yearly birthday celebration, but about the day he was actually born. That is quite clear from the last part of verse 3. In this account, Job's loyalty toward YHWH God is being tested by Satan, who is causing him to be stricken by every sort of torture. In his sufferings he is at the point of losing everything and is regretting his birth (hul·le′dheth) altogether.

In Luke 2:6–20, the Bible describes the angels and the shepherds celebrating the day Christ was born. Specifically verses 10–14 show the celebration the angels did during that day. Nowhere in the Bible does it mention Christ's birthday.

"10 but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger." 13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, 14 "Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.""

The World Book Encyclopedia considered anyone who celebrated the birth of anyone else to be following a pagan custom. The ancient Greeks, for instance, believed that each person had a protective spirit that attended the person's birth and thereafter watched over him. That spirit "had a mystic relation with the god on whose birthday the individual was born," says the book The Lore of Birthdays.

Islam

Conservative clerics consider the celebration of a birthday to be a sin, as it is considered an "innovation" of the faith, or bi'dah. A few Muslim clerics have issued statements saying that the celebration of a birthday is permissible.

Some Moslems (and Arab Christians) migrating to the United States adopt the custom of celebrating birthdays, especially for children, but others resist.

Hindus

Hindus celebrate the birth anniversary day every year when the day that corresponds to lunar month or solar month (Sun Signs Nirayana System – Sourava Mana Masa) of birth and has the same asterism (Star / Nakshatra) as that of the date of birth. That is age is reckoned whenever Janma Nakshatra of the same month passes.

LaVeyan Satanism

In LaVeyan Satanism, birthdays are considered holy days and are ranked as most important. The Satanic Bible says that each individual is a god and therefore one's one birthday is the birth of a god.

Superstitious origins of celebrations

A number of possible superstitious origins for customs associated with birthday celebrations have been suggested. One source states that the tradition of birthday parties started in Europe. It was feared that evil spirits were particularly attracted to people on their birthdays and to protect them, they would be visited by friends and family, who would bring good thoughts and wishes.

See also

• Various birthdays are mentioned on the pages devoted to each day of the year, from January 1 to December 31.
• Birthday paradox
• Birthday attack
• East Asian age reckoning – a different method of age reckoning to birthdays that is used in some Asian countries.
• Half-birthday
• Death anniversary / Yahrzeit
• Unbirthday
• Decimal Birthday
• Sashtiabdhapoorthi
• Birthstones

Further reading

• Curtis Regan, Dian (March 1991). The Class With the Summer Birthdays. Henry Holth & Co. ISBN 978-0805016574.