Birthday

A birthday is the day someone celebrates the anniversary of their birth. People mark birthdays in nearly every country in the world, though the customs look different from place to place. Most birthday parties include some mix of food, gifts, songs, and time with family and friends.

The idea of celebrating a birthday is very old. Ancient Egyptians threw parties for their pharaohs, but those celebrations honored the day a pharaoh became a god-king, not the day he was born. Ancient Greeks may have been the first to put candles on round cakes. They baked moon-shaped cakes for the goddess Artemis and lit candles to make them glow like the moon. Ancient Romans celebrated the birthdays of friends and family with gifts and food, which is closer to what people do today.

For a long time, only kings, queens, and other important people had their birthdays remembered. Most people did not even know the exact day they were born. That changed as calendars became common and as towns started keeping written records of births. By the 1800s, regular families in Europe and the United States were holding birthday parties for children.

The song "Happy Birthday to You" is sung in countries all over the world, often translated into the local language. Two American sisters, Patty and Mildred Hill, wrote the tune in 1893. It was first called "Good Morning to All." For many years a music company claimed to own the song and charged money when it was sung in movies or on television. A judge finally ruled in 2016 that nobody owns it. Now anyone can sing it for free.

Different cultures mark certain birthdays as extra special. In Mexico, a girl's 15th birthday is called a quinceañera and includes a big party with dancing. In Japan and Korea, a baby's first birthday gets a special celebration with traditional foods. Jewish families celebrate a bar mitzvah for boys at age 13 and a bat mitzvah for girls at age 12. In many countries, turning 18 or 21 marks the start of adulthood.

Some traditions are stranger than others. In parts of Canada, friends sneak up and rub butter on the birthday person's nose for good luck. In Brazil, the birthday person tugs on the earlobe of each guest, once for every year. The shapes of the parties change, but the idea stays the same: one person, one day, the whole year's worth of attention.