History of birthdays

[shankar]

Why celebrate birthdays?

[SRAYN1]

The first people recorded as celebrating birthdays were Egypt's Pharaohs: they ordered businesses to shut on their birthdays and gave enormous feasts for hundreds of servants. Cleopatra is said to have given Antony a birthday dinner with such gifts that some partygoers arrived poor and left wealthy. Persian noblemen observed their birthdays by barbecuing an ox, a camel, and an ass and serving hundreds of small cakes.

In Medieval times, nobles celebrated with raucous parties. By the 14th Century, babies born in Christian countries were named after saints, and later celebrated not their own birthdays but the day on which 'their' saints had entered heaven.

In some cultures, birthdays at puberty received special attention. Jewish boys traditionally reach their manhood on their 13th birthday. Mexican girls are considered ready for marriage on their 15th. India's maharajahs are also honoured on reaching the age of 60. The Aga Khan III had himself weighed in public on his birthday because his 20 million Ismaili Muslims were prepared to match his weight in treasure - 243lb of diamonds.

We mark birthdays as a consolation for being a year nearer death - and a celebration of another year of life.