Why is a birthday so special? You share the day of your birth with MILLIONS worldwide. What is special about that?
The irony is you are celebrating a day you were born as a “special” day, but truthfully, isn’t it as special as right now, tomorrow, or next week? Every single day of our lives should be equally weighted, because every single day is another day of experiences and another day of LIVING life.
Who is society to tell me that I must make this day special? The corporations market this idea to push their products and society being parrots follows it. A tradition that will never die. What if today wasn’t so special to some, for example, September 11th. Are we still allowed to have our special day while others are mourning the loss of loved ones?
Over the years, I have stopped liking my birthday because people seemed so much more fake about it. It started off with getting special treatment on my birthday, just because it was my birthday. People were nicer, more talkative and generally more generous. Then after the day was over, the asshole factor reappeared. Facebook is another tool that helped me dislike birthdays even more. People who never talk to me, all of a sudden wish me happy birthday and then crawl back into their cocoon for another year before they whisper a word to me again. What is the sense of that?
I wanted to know if it was me just being a little pessimistic by thinking like this, so I wanted to understand the history of birthdays.
History of Birthdays:
Before humans had a way of keeping time, no one paid much attention to the anniversary of important events, such as birthdays. Only when ancient peoples began taking notice of the moon’s cycles, did they pay attention to the changing seasons and the pattern that repeated itself over and over. Eventually, the first calendars were formulated in order to mark time changes and other special days. From this tracking system came the ability to celebrate birthdays and other significant anniversaries the same day each year.Evidence of birthday observances dates back before the rise of Christianity. In pagan cultures, people feared evil spirits - especially on their birthdays. It was a common belief that evil spirits were more dangerous to a person when he or she experienced a change in their daily life, such as turning a year older. As a result, birthdays were merry occasions celebrated with family and friends, who surrounded the person of honor with laughter and joy in order to protect them from evil. Instead of gifts, most guests brought positive thoughts and happy wishes for the upcoming year. However, if well-wishers did bring gifts, it was considered an especially good influence for the birthday person.
Although historians are certain that people have observed their birthdays for quite some time, there are few records of such celebrations that still exist. Of these few descriptions, only those birthdays of kings, high-ranking nobility, and other important figures have been documented. Common people and especially children never celebrated their birth when the idea came about. This trend has been explained by a theory that nobility were the only people wealthy enough to throw such celebrations, and quite possibly were the only ones deemed important enough to have been written about or remembered. Some historians believe these early birthday bashes resulted in the custom of wearing birthday “crowns” as time went on. The first children’s birthday parties occurred in Germany and were called Kinderfeste.
Eventually, birthday celebrations became a tradition around the world with young and old, rich or poor. Although birthday customs are quite similar in some countries today, not everyone celebrates in the same way. Different people have incorporated their own rituals into the birthday celebration, based on spiritual beliefs and ancient cultural traditions. While you may find some of them odd, or even humorous, each one is unique.
SWEET. Makes perfect sense. Birthday were used as a day to ward off “evil spirits”!! Great!!! All birthdays are, is a tradition, nothing less, nothing more. A tradition that has no basis other than ancient, uneducated, lack-of-science meaning to it.
As much as I want to say do not tell me happy birthday on my birthday, I am not going to. The sad reality is I feel forgotten when people do not remember my birthday and I am not given that special treatment (<– Society and socialization win again).
I do however wish that people would just be nice to me everyday and say happy day, happy minute or happy second. Be glad for today and be glad to be alive.