Discover Birthday Party History

Birthdays are celebrated in many cultures as the anniversary of an individual's birthday.

The notice of birthdays began when early people noticed the moon's cycles and their relations to the seasons. These people noticed a repeating pattern in the seasons and eventually created the first calendars formulating the repeating patterns. As they began noticing that people age as time progresses, they marked and began counting the number of seasons since their birth. The event of the Birthday was first noted in Europe when people feared the attraction of evil spirits to people on their birthdays. To save them from the evil spirits, family and friends would gather to bring them good thoughts wishes and gifts to repel the evil spirits.

At first, birthday parties were celebrated only for kings. However, it wasn't too long before children were having birthday parties called kinderfestes in Germany and later in other parts of Europe. The melody for the "Happy Birthday to You" song was composed by Mildred and Patty Hill in 1893. The melody for the song as we know it is "Good Morning to All" written by Patty Hill as a greeting song for teachers to use in welcoming their students to class each day. The lyrics to the song did not appear until 1924 when they appeared in a songbook by Robert H. Coleman. As radio became popular, the song gained much of its notoriety in connection with birthday celebrations.

Pastry or desserts served to people on their birthdays originated as early as the 13th century. Through the years since that time, chocolate birthday cakes have emerged as the most popular and they're served with a number of blazing candles equal to the number of years since the guest of honor's date of birth. The lighted candles on the cake likely originated in Germany as a celebration of the "light of life". It is believed that birthday cakes are round because they were first made at a time when dough was shaped by hand into round balls. In 19th century England, mothers would mix trinkets into the batter of their cakes before baking them. The person finding the trinkets would have good luck for finding the trinket.

Parties were especially entrenched in the expectations of children during the 1950s. Many of the icons we associate with birthday parties stem from this era such as games like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". Party etiquette was important in determining the decor for parties.

Today, birthdays are celebrated by the families of the one year old as well as by families of 100 year old adults. A silent wish is made as the celebrated person blows out all the candles in a single breath ensuring the wish will come true. Birthday cakes are highly decorated and candles range from number shaped varieties -- to candles in the shape of cartoons -- to edible candles. The one thing that seems to stay constant is the song "Happy Birthday to You" which has found its way in the celebrations since the early 20th century.