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{{Articleissues|article=y|cleanup = December 2007|OR = February 2008|refimprove = April 2007|tone = February 2008}}
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<!--[[Image:Gabe-birthday.jpg|thumb|200px|Man with birthday cake]]-->
[[Image:B'day.jpg|A child's birthday celebration|thumb|400px]]
'''Birthday''' is the name given to the day that some people in many cultures [[celebration (party)|celebrate]] the [[anniversary]] they were born. It is often marked by a birthday [[party]] and/or friends when gifts are given to the person celebrating the birthday. It is also customary to treat people specially on their birthday, either generally acceding to their wishes, or subjecting them to a [[rite of transition]].

It is thought the large-scale celebration of birthdays in Europe began with the cult of [[Mithras]], which originated in [[Persia]] but was spread by soldiers throughout the [[Roman Empire]]. Such celebrations were uncommon previously so practices from other contexts such as the [[Saturnalia]] were adapted for birthdays.{{Fact|date=March 2008}} Because many Roman soldiers took to [[Mithraism]], it had a wide distribution and influence throughout the empire until it was supplanted by [[Christianity]]. The [[Judaism|Jewish]] perspective on birthday celebrations is disputed by various [[rabbi]]s.<ref>[http://rchaimqoton.blogspot.com/2007/04/happy-birthday.html Reb Chaim HaQoton: Happy Birthday!]April 17, 2007</ref>

The celebration of birthdays is not universal. Some people prefer name day celebrations, and [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] do not celebrate either, considering their origins to be [[paganism|pagan]] festivals along with [[Christmas]] and [[Easter]]. Some adults loathe celebrating it as it reminds them that they are getting progressively older.

== Birthday cake ==
{{main|Birthday cake}}
The [[birthday cake]] is traditionally highly decorated, and typically covered with lit [[candle]]s when presented, the number of candles signifying the age of the celebrant. The person whose birthday it is makes a silent [[wish (fiction)|wish]] and then blows out the candles. If done in one [[breath]], the wish is supposed to come true (but only if the person keeps the wish to himself or herself). "Trick" candles have also been used to play practical jokes on the birthday boy or girl. These candles do not go out when blown upon, making it difficult to get the wish associated with blowing out all of the candles. It is also common for the "birthday boy" or "birthday girl" to cut the initial piece of the cake as a newlywed couple might with a [[wedding cake]]. If the knife touches the bottom, or when withdrawn from the cake comes out with pieces of cake adhering to it, the birthday boy or girl may have to kiss the nearest person of a different sex.

Birthday cakes date back as far as the [[Middle Ages]] when the English would conceal symbolic items such as gold coins, rings and thimbles inside their cakes. Each item was associated with a prediction. For example, a person finding a gold coin in a birthday cake would supposedly become wealthy; a person discovering a thimble would never marry.

For special birthdays and for when the number of candles might be considered impractical or a [[fire]] [[risk|hazard]], special candles are substituted for the many individual candles in the shape of a [[numeral]]. For example, on the fifth birthday, there may be one candle on the cake in the shape of the numeral five, and on the fiftieth birthday there may be two candles on the cake, one in the shape of the numeral five followed by the other in the shape of the number zero.

Birthday cakes are often designed specially for what the person who has the birthday likes. Many cakes may be bought at a local grocery store.

== Traditions ==
A birthday is considered a special day for the person, and so the person will often get special treatment from friends and family. This is especially true for children, who eagerly anticipate their own special day. In addition to parties, people often receive [[gift]]s on their birthday. Birthday parties for children often include fun games, which are relevant to the local culture, or the visit of a magician to entertain. Typical birthday party decorations include balloons, streamers and confetti. There are also traditions of [[surprise party#Birthday surprise parties|surprise parties]]. Not all traditions are equally generous. In certain circles, the birthday boy or girl is expected to treat their party guests; this varies depending on the local culture and may involve party gifts or other nice gesture. In some cultures, the birthday at which the youngster reaches the legal age for alcohol consumption may be celebrated with a party at which free or abundant alcoholic drinks are available.

In most [[English language|English]]-speaking countries it is traditional to sing the [[song]] ''[[Happy Birthday to You]]'' to the honored person celebrating a birthday. The Happy Birthday song tune is thought to be the most frequently sung melody in the world. Similar songs exist in other languages such as "Lang zal hij/zij leven" (and several others) in Dutch, "Zum Geburtstag Viel Glück" in German, "Cumpleaños feliz" in Spanish, "Sto lat" in Polish, "Lá Bhreithlá Shona Duit" in Irish, "Joyeux Anniversaire" in French, "Tanti Auguri a te" in Italian and "Iyi ki dogdun, Mutlu Yillar Sana" in Turkish. This happens traditionally at a birthday party while someone brings a birthday [[cake]] into the (often darkened) room.

== Special birthdays==
[[Image:birthday.jpg|A birthday cake|thumb|170px]]
{{Original research|section|date=July 2007}}
Notable birthdays can include:
* When the most significant digit changes, for example one's 1st, 10th, 20th, 30th, 50th, or 100th birthdays.
* Certain coming-of-age years often accompanied by an increase in legal privileges and responsibilities; in Western nations these often traditionally happen at ages 12, 16, 18, 19 and 21, and may include the rights to drink various grades of alcohol, smoke, gamble, vote and run for political office.
* One's ''champagne birthday'', also called a ''golden birthday'', is the day when the age someone turns is the same as the day in the month he or she was born. It is also common for the birthday individual to have champagne, thus ''champagne birthday''. For example, someone born on January 31st would celebrate his or her golden birthday when he or she turns 31. According to the [[Dictionary of American Regional English]], this meaning is most prevalent in [[Wisconsin]] and eastern [[Minnesota]], although it is used elsewhere.
* One's ''platinum birthday'' is the birthday when the age matches the concatenated numeric value of the month and the day. For example, somebody turning 43 on 4/3 would be celebrating their platinum birthday. This time-honored tradition originated in east central [[Minnesota]].
* One's Beddian birthday<ref>http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/11/12/071112ta_talk_widdicombe</ref> is the day when the age one turns is the same as the last two digits of one's birth year. For example, people born in 1954 would celebrate their Beddian birthday when they turned 54 in 2008. This birthday is named for a NYC firefighter, Bobby Beddia, who noted this coincidence days before he was killed in a seven-alarm blaze near Ground Zero.
* In most legal systems, one becomes a legal [[adult]] on a particular birthday (often 18th or 21st), and at different ages gains different rights and responsibilities — [[voting]], certain [[recreational drug use|drug]] use (for example, [[alcohol]], purchasing [[tobacco]]), eligibility for [[military draft]] or voluntary enlistment, purchasing [[lottery]] tickets, vehicle driving licences, etc.
* Many cultures have one or more [[coming of age]] birthdays:
** Jewish boys have a [[bar mitzvah]] on or around their 13th birthday. [[Jew]]ish girls observe a [[bat mitzvah]] on or around their 12th birthday, or sometimes on or around their 13th birthday in [[Reform Judaism|Reform]] and [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]] [[Judaism]].
**In some Christian traditions, generally [[Catholic]] and [[Anglican]], [[Confirmation]] is the ritual by which a young person receives a Sacrament thought to bestow certain gifts of the Holy Spirit. The timing of the reception of this Sacrament serves, on a sociological level, as a sort of "rite of passage" into adulthood.
** In [[Latin America]] the ''[[quinceañera]]'' celebration traditionally marks a girl's 15th birthday.
** Some girls and a few boys in the [[United States]] have "[[Sweet sixteen (birthday)|sweet sixteen]]" birthday parties.
** In the [[United Kingdom]] 18th and 21st are traditional coming of age birthdays.
** In many Asian countries, the 14th birthday is celebrated as the day one becomes a man, or a woman, in society.
** Many [[Filipino people|Filipino]] girls celebrate their 18th birthdays with a [[cotillion]] and debutante ball, commonly known as a [[Debutante|debut]].
*The birthdays of historically significant people, like national heroes or founders, are often commemorated by an official [[holiday]]. Some saints are remembered by a liturgical feast (sometimes on a presumed birthday). By analogy, the Latin term ''Dies natalis'' 'birthday' is applied to the anniversary of an institution (such as a university).

==Official/Alternative birthdays and name day==
Some notables, particularly Monarchs, have on a fixed day of the year, an ''official birthday'' which do not match their actual birthday, but on which celebrations are held.
Examples are:
*King's or [[Queen's Official Birthday]] in [[Australia]], [[Canada]], [[Fiji]], [[New Zealand]], and the [[United Kingdom]].
*[[Commonwealth Day]], originally called Empire's Day, is on the Queen-Empress Victoria's birthday: [[May 24]]
*[[Jesus]] of [[Nazareth]]'s traditional birthday is celebrated as [[Christmas Day]] around the world: [[25 December]]. As some [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern]] churches use the [[Julian calendar]], [[25 December]] falls on [[7 January]] in the [[Gregorian calendar]] every year until [[2100]].
*The [[Grand Duke's Official Birthday]] in [[Luxembourg]]: [[23 June]]
*King's official birthday in [[Belgium]]: [[November 15]] (on saint Leopold, liturgical feast of the dynasty's founder's patron saint)
*in [[Malaysia]], the [[Yang di-Pertuan Agong]] (federal King, elected for 5 years) celebrates his federal official birthday on the first Saturday of [[June]].
*Koningsdag or [[Koninginnedag]] in the Kingdom of the [[Netherlands]] is fixed on [[30 April]] (Queen's Day; celebration of the reigning Queen's accession). Queen Beatrix fixed it at the birthday of her mother, the previous Queen, to avoid the winter weather associated with her own birthday in January.

While it is uncommon to have an official holiday for a [[republic]]an [[head of state]]'s birthday, this can become a permanent posthumous honour, especially in the case of a so-called [[father of the fatherland]], for example George Washington (best known as [[Presidents' Day]]; also celebrated in the US is [[Lincoln's Birthday]])

In cases where a mythical figure's actual birthday is unknown, it is common for a particular date to be substituted.

People born on [[leap day]] ([[February 29]]), which occurs only during [[leap year]]s, often celebrate their birthday in other years on [[February 28]], or [[March 1]] (the first day they have, measured in whole years, a new [[Ageing|age]]).

In some [[Roman Catholicism|Roman Catholic]] and [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Eastern Orthodox]] countries such as [[France]], [[Hungary]], or [[Greece]], it is common to have a '[[name day]]'/'Saint's day'. This is celebrated in much the same way as a birthday, but is held on the official day of a saint with the same Christian name as the birthday boy/girl; the difference being that one may look up a person's name day in a calendar, or easily remember common name days (for example, ''John'' or ''Mary''); however in pious traditions, the two were often made to concur by giving a newborn the name of a saint celebrated on its birthday, or even the name of a feast, for example, ''Noel'' or ''Pascal'' (French for Christmas and "of Easter"). In some countries, name days are celebrated with much more elaborate festivities than birthdays; in the past, birthdays often were not celebrated at all in those countries.

In school, a [[half-birthday]] or other [[unbirthday]] is sometimes celebrated for those whose birthdays do not fall on a school day (especially for birthdays falling during holiday and vacation periods).

All [[racehorse]]s traditionally celebrate their birthday on (that is, calculate their age in years from) [[1 August]] in the Southern Hemisphere, and on [[1 January]] in the Northern Hemisphere.

==Birthday gift symbolism==
===Birthstones===
A birthstone is a gift of a precious material (jewelry, mainly [[gemstone]]s; themselves traditionally associated with various qualities) that symbolizes the [[month]] of birth (in the [[Gregorian Calendar]]).

It is sometimes also called ''birthday stone'' (cf. infra; but that word is, confusingly, sometimes used as a synonym for an [[anniversary]] gift, which is related to the recipient's age, that is, year of birth).

There have been many different sets of birthstones used throughout history and in different cultures. In [[1912]], in an effort to standardize them, the American national association of jewelers, [[Jewelers of America]], officially adopted the following list; it is currently the most widely used list in the [[United States]] and many other locations, including Australia and Thailand. Some alternates have been adopted to be a less expensive substitute for a cut stone.

{| border=1 class=wikitable
! Month
! Traditional Birthstone<ref>Timewell Corp. Website.[http://www.timewellcorp.com/birthstones.htm Birthstones and Gemstones Color]</ref>
! Modern Birthstone<ref>Timewell Corp. Website.[http://www.timewellcorp.com/birthstones.htm Birthstones and Gemstones Color]</ref>
|-
| January
| [[garnet]]
| [[garnet]]

|-
| February
| [[amethyst]]
| [[amethyst]]
|-
| March
| [[Heliotrope (mineral)|bloodstone]], [[jasper]]
| [[aquamarine]]
|-
| April
| [[diamond]], [[sapphire]]
| [[diamond]]
|-
| May
| [[emerald]], [[agate]]
| [[emerald]]
|-
| June
| [[alexandrite]], [[emerald]]
| [[moonstone (gemstone)|moonstone]], [[pearl]]
|-
| July
| [[ruby]], [[onyx]]
| [[ruby]]
|-
| August
| [[sardonyx]], [[carnelian]]
| [[peridot]]
|-
| September
| [[sapphire]], [[peridot]]
| [[sapphire]]
|-
| October
| [[tourmaline]], [[pearl]]
| [[opal]]
|-
| November
| [[citrine]], [[topaz]]
| [[topaz]], [[citrine]]
|-
| December
| [[zircon]], [[ruby]]
| [[turquoise]], blue [[topaz]]
|}

[[Tanzanite]] was added to December by the American Gem Trade Association in 2002. Most organizations do not recognize tanzanite as a December birthstone, however, and the AGTA's move to make it a December birthstone has generally been viewed as a marketing ploy.

The birthstone seems to originate from Biblical times. The Breastplate of Aaron, referred to in Exodus 39:10-14:

:10 Then they mounted four rows of precious stones on it. In the first row there was a [[ruby]], a [[topaz]] and a [[beryl]];
:11 in the second row a [[turquoise]], a [[sapphire]] and an [[emerald]];
:12 in the third row a [[jacinth]], an [[agate]] and an [[amethyst]];
:13 in the fourth row a [[chrysolite]], an [[onyx]] and a [[jasper]]. They were mounted in gold filigree settings.
:14 There were twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.

The precise list of birthstones however can be found in Revelation 21:19-20{{Fact|date=April 2007}}<!-- which translation? --> where the foundation stones of the new Jerusalem are listed, in the order of the Roman calendar:

:19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was [[jasper]]; the second, [[sapphire]]; the third, a [[chalcedony]]; the fourth, an [[emerald]];
:20 The fifth, [[sardonyx]]; the sixth, [[sard]]ius; the seventh, [[Olivine|chrysolyte]]; the eighth, [[beryl]]; the ninth, a [[topaz]]; the tenth, a [[Chrysoprase|chrysoprasus]]; the eleventh, a [[jacinth]]; the twelfth, an [[amethyst]].

===Birth flowers===
{| border=1 class=wikitable
! Month
! Flower
|-
| January
| [[Dianthus caryophyllus|Carnation]], [[Snowdrop]]
|-
| February
| [[Violet (plant)|Violet]]
|-
| March
| [[Daffodil]] (Jonquil)
|-
| April
| [[Daisy]], [[Sweet Pea]], [[Tulip]]
|-
| May
| [[Sunflower]], [[Lily of the Valley]]
|-
| June
| [[Rose]], [[Honeysuckle]]
|-
| July
| [[Consolida|Larkspur]]
|-
| August
| [[Lily]], [[Gladiolus]]
|-
| September
| [[Forget-me-not]], [[Morning glory|Morning Glory]]
|-
| October
| [[Calendula|Calendula (Marigold)]], [[Camellia]]
|-
| November
| [[Chrysanthemum]]
|-
| December
| [[Holly]], [[Narcissus (genus)|Narcissus]]
|}

Just as there are alternatives with birthstones, there are also alternatives with birth flowers. For example, October is often listed as [[Calendula|Calendula (Marigold)]] , but is also occasional noted as being [[rose]] or [[camellia]].

==Technical issues==
A person's birthday is usually recorded according to the time zone of the place of birth. Thus people born in [[Samoa]] at 11:30 PM will record their birthdate as one day before [[UTC]] and those born in the [[Line Islands]] will record their birthdate one day after UTC. They will apparently be born two days apart, while some of the apparently older ones may be younger in hours. Those who live in different time zones from their birth often exclusively celebrate their birthdays at the local time zone. In addition, the intervention of [[Daylight Saving Time]] can result in a case where a baby born second being recorded as having been born up to an hour before their predecessor<ref> WRAL.com [http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/2011296/ Daylight-Saving Causes Twin Arrival Pickle]</ref> (but the time the clock is changed back is such that the second of twins does not have an earlier birthday).

===Birthday stones===
While this word has also been used as synonym of Birth stone (see above), there is a separate list of assignment according to the day of the week of the recipient's birth:
* Monday : [[Pearl]] (the only organic gem)
* Tuesday : [[Garnet]]
* Wednesday : Cat's eye ([[Chatoyancy|Chatoyant]] [[Chrysoberyl]])
* Thursday : [[Emerald]]
* Friday : [[Topaz]]
* Saturday : [[Sapphire]]
* Sunday : [[Ruby]]

==See also==
* Various birthdays are mentioned on the pages devoted to each day of the year, from [[January 1]] to [[December 31]]
* [[Birthday paradox]]
* [[Birthday attack]]
* [[East Asian age reckoning]] - a different method of age reckoning to birthdays that is used in some Asian countries.
* [[Half-birthday]]
* [[Death anniversary]]
* [[Astrology]]
**[[Natal chart]]
**[[Horoscope]]
* [[Unbirthday]]
* [[Decimal Birthday]]
* [[Sashtiabdhapoorthi]], a kind of Hindu meta-birthday for those turning [http://www.guruspeak.org/2007/11/mom-is-60-happy-birthday-mommy.html sixty].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons|Birthday}}
{{wikiquote}}

<!-- please do not add links to shopping sites selling "birthday goods" and the like. Wikipedia is not a mall; such links will be deleted very quickly. -->

[[Category:Birthdays| ]]

[[az:Ad günü]]
[[cs:Narozeniny]]
[[da:Fødselsdag]]
[[de:Geburtstag]]
[[eo:Naskiĝtago]]
[[es:Cumpleaños]]
[[fi:Syntymäpäivä]]
[[fr:Anniversaire]]
[[fy:Jierdei]]
[[he:יום הולדת]]
[[it:Compleanno]]
[[ja:誕生日]]
[[km:ពិធី​ខួប​កំណើត]]
[[ko:생일]]
[[ksh:Jebootsdaach]]
[[nl:Verjaardag]]
[[nn:Fødselsdag]]
[[no:Fødselsdag]]
[[pl:Urodziny]]
[[pt:Aniversário]]
[[qu:Wata hunt'ay]]
[[ru:День рождения]]
[[simple:Birthday]]
[[sv:Födelsedag]]
[[tg:Рӯзи таваллуд]]
[[th:วันเกิด]]
[[yi:געבורטס טאג]]
[[zh:生日]]
[[zh-yue:生日]]

Revision as of 13:34, 25 April 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIKIPEDIA

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