How Birthdays Became About You
Every human has one. A day of birth.
But the celebration of a birthday is a relatively recent custom.
In this episode of Hold That Thought, we continue our Reality, By Agreement mini-series where we take something that feels like a fact and find the moment we all decided it was so. Today, we discuss birthdays.
We explore the history of the birthday celebration as we know it today, the symbolic elements and their origins – the cake, the candles, the song – the societal and historical elements that made these celebrations possible, and different birthday customs from around the world, including a Dutch tradition where the birthday person brings the treats. Along the way, we share our earliest birthday memories and get personal in unpacking what makes a birthday feel both special and incredibly vulnerable, ripe for disappointment.
Themes: Birthdays, history, rituals, celebration, temporality, customs, memory, culture, community, construction
Resources:
Why Do We Celebrate Birthdays
YOU'RE ONLY AS OLD AS WE SAY YOU ARE
The Long History of the 'Happy Birthday' Song—And Its Copyright
“Happy Birthday to You” and the End of One of the Most Famous Copyrights in History:
Blowing our birthday candles is surprisingly ancient
It is about time: Birthdays as modern rites of temporality
The festive history of American birthdays
Elodi’s Doljanchi: A Korean baby’s first birthday celebration
The Dutch Birthday Circle: A Social Ritual Explained
On being forgotten: Memory and forgetting serve as signals of interpersonal importance
