Grasping the essence of birthdays

A birthday is the date that comes once every calendar year when a person celebrates — or, depending on the number of year, tries to forget — the anniversary of his or her birth. A birth date is the exact date — day, month, year – that a person was born.

Many religions celebrate the birthday of their founders with special holidays like Buddha’s birthday. In six days, Dec. 25, the Christian world will celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. That is also the expected birth date of my second grandchild — another boy.

Today’s column is inspired by these two coming events.

Birthdays have, of course, been celebrated for thousands of years in the history of mankind. Although celebrations by rulers and kings have been widely recorded, even in ancient civilizations these were not reserved only for the aristocratic elite.

There are three birthday traditions about whose origins I have always been curious. These are the practice of having birthday cakes, blowing out the candles and the world famous Happy Birthday song.

Someone volunteered to research these topics for me and these are his discoveries. It seems that there are several historical theories.

The Ancient Greece theory is that the tradition of placing candles on birthday cakes could be attributed to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt as well as the moon. The cakes brought to the temple of Artemis were adorned with candles to make them glow like the moon. It was also believed that the smoke was a vehicle to carry the prayers to the gods. It is said that this idea is the basis for the modern “make a wish” tradition before blowing out the candle.

However, some believe that the tradition of putting candles on cakes started in Germany where a candle was supposedly placed on the cake to represent the “light of life.” This version of the tradition can be traced to Kinderfest, an 18th century German birthday celebration for children. The word “Kinder” is the German word for “children.”

The purpose of the German celebration is for the children to be free to celebrate another year in an atmosphere where the adults may protect the children from the evil spirits that may attempt to steal innocent souls.

This is very similar to the pagan theory that believed evil spirits visited people on their birthdays. To protect the person celebrating a birthday from evil, people used to surround him with merriment.

But the tradition of blowing out of candles was documented in Switzerland in 1881. According to the Folk Lore Journal, “a birthday cake must have lighted candles arranged around it, one candle for each year of life. Before the cake is eaten, the person whose birthday it is should blow out the candles one after another.”

Some Islamic clerics consider the celebration of a birthday to be a sin. There also seems to be a great deal of controversy regarding celebrating “Milad-ul-Nabi,” the anniversary of the birth of Muhammad. While a sector of Islam favors the celebration, others condemn such celebrations, terming them as out of the scope of Islam.

I also read that Jehovah’s Witness and some Sacred Name groups refrain from celebrating birthdays. They believe that birthday celebrations are portrayed in a negative light in the Bible and have historical connections with magic, superstitions and paganism.

The birthday of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, is the most widely celebrated festival in the world. While it is the central Christian festival, Christmas is also a civil holiday in many nations today. It is, in fact, being celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.

But even the exact date of Christ’s birthday seems to be a matter of intense debate. Historians have estimated that the birth of Jesus may have been between 7 BC and 2 BC. And the exact month and day of his birth is supposedly unknown.

The original date of the celebration in Eastern Christianity was Jan. 6, in connection with the Epiphany, and that is still the date of the celebration for the Armenian Apostolic Church and in Armenia where it is a public holiday.

As of 2013, there is a difference of 13 days between the modern Gregorian calendar, which is what we use in the Philippines, and the older Julian calendar, which is why we celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25. In countries that use the Julian calendar, the date Dec. 25 translates to Jan. 6 on the Gregorian calendar. For this reason, Russia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia, Macedonia, Moldova celebrate Christmas on Jan. 6 on our calendar.

There are many aspects of Christmas celebrations that are actually of the typical birthday celebrations. For example, there is the custom of gift giving. In fact, the most popular non religious figures for Christmas represent gift givers such as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicolas and Kris Kringle.

Then there is the Christmas meal which obviously resembles the birthday feast. And there is the symbol of candles which is used on birthday cakes and which represents the days of Advent.

But for me, the most joyous aspect of Christmas and birthdays is that both are so child-centered. Senior citizens may celebrate their birthdays with greater pomp or expensive travels. But nothing can compare with the wonder and the excitement of a child celebrating a birthday.

There may be many modern symbols of Christmas from pine trees to lights. But the most wonderful and heartwarming symbol of Christmas is still the “belen” or the nativity scene with the baby Jesus at its center.

Despite all the revelry that comes with celebrating birthdays and the holidays, what really makes it all truly special and profoundly significant is being able to realize and relish whatever meaning it holds on a personal, intimate level for each of us.

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