Happy Birthday!
To us birthdays mean cake, balloons, parties, candles, cards, and presents! Cultures around the world observe birthdays in many ways, some just like us, and some very differently.
Happy Birthday To ME.
In honor of my own yearly candle-blowing ceremony, I've created a lens about how other people around the world celebrate their birthdays. Wiki Birthdays
Birthday is the name given to the date of the anniversary of a person's birth. People in many cultures celebrate this anniversary. In some languages, the word for birthday literally translates as "anniversary". Birthdays are traditionally marked by celebrations including a birthday party or, in some particular cases, a rite of transition.
Russia
In Russia, birthdays are celebrated much as we do in other western nations, teachers and friends celebrate at school by giving small gifts to a birthday child. They have a birthday party either on their birthday or on the weekend, instead of a birthday cake, however, a birthday pie is traditional. A birthday greeting is carved into the crust.At children's parties, a popular game involves a clothesline with prizes are hung from it and each guest gets to cut down a prize to take home.
Brazil
In Brazil birthday candies are given which are shaped like fruit and vegetables. Their houses are decorated with paper flowers and instead of a birthday spanking and a "pinch to grow an inch", Brazilians pull on children's earlobes for each year of their birthday. What Sign Are You?
In astrology, a horoscope is a chart or diagram representing the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, the astrological aspects, and sensitive angles at the time of an event, such as the moment of a person's birth. The word horoscope is derived from Greek words meaning "a look at the hours" (horoskopos, pl. horoskopoi, or "marker(s) of the hour.") Other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel, or simply chart. It is used as a method of divination regarding events relating to the point in time it represents and forms the basis of the horoscopic traditions of astrology.
In common usage, horoscope often refers to an astrologer's interpretation, usually through a system of Sun sign astrology or based upon calendar significance of an event, as in Chinese astrology. In particular, many newspapers and magazines carry predictive columns based on celestial influences in relation to the zodiacal placement of the Sun on the day of a person's birth, identifying the individual's Sun sign or "star sign." This system is distinct from horoscopes as traditionally employed, as only the zodiacal placement of the Sun is considered in interpretationhttp://people.howstuffworks.com/horoscope1.htm How Horoscopes Work. While this modern usage is perhaps the most popular in the colloquial lexicon, this article will focus primarily on the traditional concept.
Africa
In various African nations they hold initiation ceremonies for groups of children instead of birthdays. When children reach a certain designated age, they learn the laws, beliefs, customs, songs and dances of their tribes. Israel
In Israel on your birthday you wear a crown made from leaves or flowers and sit in a chair of honor. Guests dance around the chair singing. The parents lift the chair while the child sits in it (similar to what you may have seen at a Jewish wedding). While a child is sitting in the chair their parents raise and lower it a number of times corresponding to the child's age, plus one for good luck.The thiteenth birthday is the most special as it is one this day a boy (bar) as well as some girls (bat) celebrate their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Each child has to prepare for this service for many months or even years ahead of time to memorize the Torah reading.
China
In China everyone celebrates their birthday on New Year even if it is not the official date of their birthday. They turn another year older on this day.They believe that when a baby is born that he or she is already one year old..
In China, it is unlucky to give someone a clock for a birthday present because in the Mandarin language the word for "clock" is similar to the word for "death".
Chinese Zodiac
The Chinese Zodiac is a 12 year cycle. Each year of the 12 year cycle is named after one of the original 12 animals. Each animal has a different personality and different characteristics.
The animal is believed to be the main factor in each person's life that gives them their traits, success, and happiness in their lifetime.
The Chinese zodiac refers to a pure calendrical cycle; there are no equivalent constellations like those of the occidental zodiac. In imperial times there were astrologers who watched the sky for heavenly omens that would predict the future of the state, but this was a quite different practice of divination from the popular present-day methods.
Make A Wish!
The custom of using candles for birthdays may have originated with the early Greeks who used to place candles on the cake that they offered to Artemis - the Goddess of Moon.Making a wish comes from the old Christian belief that prayers made while blowing out a votive candle would be answered.
Light Your Cake In Style
England
The English celebrate birthdays with a Fortune Telling Cake. Small, symbolic objects are baked right into the cake, your fortune is revealed depending on which token you get in your slice.On your birthday your friends give you the "bumps" they lift you in the air by your hands and feet and raise you up and down to the floor, one for each year then one for luck, two for luck and three for the old man's coconut!
Birthday cards originated in England over 100 years ago.
Egypt
In Egypt people love having really large birthday parties with lots of friends and family. There are usually two different birthday cakes served. One has candles and one does not.They decorate their homes with garlands of paper that look like chains of snowflakes.
Birthstones
January - garnet
February - amethyst
March - bloodstone
April - diamond
May - emerald
June - alexandrite
July - ruby
August - peridot
September - sapphire
October - tourmaline
November - citrine
December - zircon
Early civilizations such as India and Babylon have attributed gemstones with magical properties. Over time, astrologers assigned gems of certain colors to the twelve signs of the zodiac to help people influence the planets in their favor.
Celebrate Around the World
More Resources
Kids' Birthday Party Music CD - $ 13.99
Add fun to your party with this wonderful collection of 18 songs.1. Tutti Frutti2. Peppermint Twist3. The Name Game4. Candy Man5. The Lion Sleeps Tonight6. Lollipop7. ABC8. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang9. Splish Splash10. Yakety Yak11. Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini12. Disco Duck13. Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street14. We Go Together15. Hokey Pokey16. Simon Says17. Limbo Rock18. Happy Birthday To You
- Birthday Celebrations on the Net
- Celebrations from around the world.
More Squidoo!
-
H2O - Just Add Water
-
For Emma, Cleo and Rikki, growing up on the gorgeous coast of Australia, every day is an adventure. Then the fun turns to danger when they become standed on the mysterious Meko island. To escape, they must swim through an underwater channel, and as...
-
Wax Tarts, Burners, Melts, and More
-
Tarts, also called wax melts, candle melts, soy melts, wax potpourri, or fragrance melts, are a perfect way to scent your home without chemical sprays or a lot of smoke. With burner choices available to match any decor and any scent that you love eas...
-
Max and Ruby - Clothes and Toys
-
Max & Ruby is a television series based on the children's books by Rosemary Wells. Come meet Max, an amazingly smart and headstrong little bunny who is 3, and his big sister, Ruby, a warm, patient, and creative seven-year-old. The show is a huge favo...
-
Charlie and Lola
-
Charlie and Lola is fun series targeted at preschool audiences about a boy named Charlie and his sister, Lola. Featuring a unique "collage" animation style and catchy background themes, the show follows the pair as Charlie helps out his often rather...
-
Books That Both Kids and Parents Will Love
-
Do you get tired of hearing about "educational" books and how reading to your kids is so important to their development? I do. We all know how essential reading is but what about for pure entertainment? Instead of TV, why not read a GREAT story to y...
Leave Your Birthday Wishes Here!
This lens is being written on MY birthday (for real), so birthday wishes to all of the June babies, my fellow Geminis, and others born in The Year of The Dog.
I Share My Birthday With:
George H.W. Bush
Anne Frank
Marv Albert
Chick Corea
Jim Nabors
Vic Damone
Cosimo d'Medici
Johanna Spyri
ElizabethJeanAllen wrote...
Every year I look forward to yet dread my birthday. Its a part of getting older.
Great lens.
Lizzy
Posted August 11, 2008
Quickcutters wrote...
Great lens. It was interesting reading how the other countries celebrate there's.
I enjoyed you're lens.
Posted August 09, 2008
capybara wrote...
Great Lens unfortunately no one is fit enough to give me the bumps needed to celebrate my birthday.
Posted August 09, 2008
