Talk:Birthday cake

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Can't hold a candle to me

When were candles first added to cakes? Trekphiler 23:43, 21 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to know why. It's a rather random tradition when you think about it; I can't think of any other pastry we eat on a recurring basis that's decorated with fire. 71.231.102.185 23:37, 9 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Birthday cakes likely originated with the Egyptians. The Greeks later had birthday cakes for the gods/goddesses. Birthday cake with candles started with the birthday celebration for the Greek moon god Artemis. References 1 2 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Toritaiyo (talk • contribs) 01:15, 23 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Candles

" The origin of birthday cake candles can be further traced back to the 16th century German tradition of placing tapers on Christmas trees.^[1] This tradition was then brought to North America by German immigrants. By 1927, the Sears Roebuck catalogue offered birthday candles and holders for sale.^[1] "

Originally, this was in the candles section. For me, it is the most important piece of information, while the Goethe excerpt is only secondary; let me explain why. When I first visited the article, it pointed to some obscure cult of Artemis as the origin of the candle tradition. For obvious reasons, the connection is probably spurious and of course, the source cited was by no means academic. My claim for the Germanic origin comes from Cherasky (2000), which, as I recall was a conference paper. Cherasky herself cites Christmas tree tradition as a point of origin and the Goethe kinderfest quote as a primary source. For me, without the tapers, there is no cultural point of origin, no precedent. Goethe attends some prince's bday party, there are candles on the cake, so what? By citing links in germanic culture to festivals, candles, and central objects of celebration; the connection no only less tenuous, but more fully contextualised. Of course, cultural artefacts are never formed or explained so simply and I agree that there is probably no real "explanation"; however, the best we can do is triangulate and provide a cultural context, not for "explaining" but for "understanding" the logic of the time. Without the Christmas tradition, the Goethe account seems to hang alone in empty explanatory space. We are no better off than with obscure Roman cults.

Secondly, 16th cent Germany is hardly 21st cent North America. We must provide explanation and justification, or if nothing else an account of its journey, for its contemporary Western ontology. While I agree that the last two statements do not fully chart the globalisation of the candle tradition, it is a start. I hope that is enough justification to keep them...

As for the citations, I'm sure I've screwed them up, but they should point to Cherasky - if you would be so kind as to show me how to correct them I would appreciate it (I think the sears roebuck may be from elsewhere, I will double check...).

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