Birthday Traditions

It is birthday season in our house these days – my oldest turned 12 last week, my youngest will celebrate another year around the sun on Sunday and we will fete my middle a couple weeks later. All three of our girls have birthdays within a month of each other followed by my husband in late July and finishing the season with mine on the first of September. Needless to say, by the time my birthday rolls around, we’re all pretty over all of the cake and candles.

Speaking of cake and candles, do you make or buy a cake for birthdays in your home? One of our traditions is to make a favorite cake (or cupcakes) for the birthday child (or grown up). We also have a long-standing tradition of breakfast in bed on your birthday. My parents started this in my family growing up.

 

This year, we celebrated my oldest’s “Golden Birthday” wherein she turned 12 on the 12th. I had never heard of the Golden Birthday until a couple years ago when my middle turned 8 on the 8th. Apparently, she learned about the golden birthday at school. Coincidentally, my husband and I traveled to Greece that year a few weeks before her birthday and while we were there, we purchased a Greek Golden Crown (a small headband with laurel leaves) to celebrate her special birthday and the crown has become a golden birthday tradition. This year we pulled it out for my oldest and she was over the moon – she wore it all week. Now it is put away until my youngest turns 24 on the 24th, ha! (I have visions of her living in some cool town and getting her golden birthday crown in the mail to celebrate the big day – or maybe I’ll fly out to bring it to her, wherever she is).

All of this golden birthday, breakfast in bed, cake and ice cream talk has made me curious to find out what other families and cultures do to celebrate birthdays. Here are some fun traditions I discovered:

• Mexico – In Mexico, kids get a birthday piñata filled with candy and all of the kids grab a broomstick and take turns knocking it down. (Source: Mental Floss)
• Vietnam – Everyone celebrates their birthday on New Year’s Day in Vietnam, a day they refer to as “tet.” Vietnamese tradition is that the actual day of birth is not acknowledged. Rather, people become a year older every year at tet. (Source: Mental Floss)
• Russia – In Russia they have a clothesline birthday party tradition where basically, adults hang up clothes lines with small gifts hanging off of them and kids pull one down as a party favor. (Source Bustle)
• Ecuador – Children in Ecuador celebrate their birthdays on the day that the Saint they were named after was born. (Source Bustle)
• India – In India kids get to wear new clothes on their birthdays! They wake up and put on a new outfit and later get a special meal. The kids also show their parents signs of respect by touching their feet. (Source Bustle)
• Canada – On Canadian birthdays, people are usually ambushed and have butter or grease smeared on their noses, lol. (Source Bustle)

What are your birthday traditions and how did they come about? And if you’re Canadian – do you really smear grease on your nose?