Since my birthday was last week, I thought that I would dig into the history of birthdays. Birthdays are not just a date celebrating when someone was born onto this earth.
What is the real meaning of birthday?
Noun: The anniversary of a birth. The day of a person's birth. A day marking or commemorating the origin, founding, or beginning of something. The festivities or celebration marking such a day or anniversary.
Birthdays didn’t begin until calendars were created. People did not have a way of keeping track of dates, let alone the anniversary of their birth.
It all started with the Egyptians, the earliest mention of a birthday was around 3,000 B.C.E. and was about a Pharaoh’s birthday, not the actual date of his physical birth but his “birth” as a god.
Pagans believed that each person had a spirit that was present on the day of their birth. This spirit kept watch and had a mystic relationship with the God born that day.
Birthday celebrations first started as a form of protection. Friends and family would gather and light candles to protect them from harm with good cheer. Noisemakers were also used to scare away evil.
The ancient Romans were the first to celebrate the birth of the common man or non-religious figures. Regular Roman citizens would celebrate the birthdays of their friends and family members. The government created public holidays in honor of more famous citizens. Female birthdays were not celebrated until about the 12th century.
Birthdays were first considered to be a pagan ritual in Christian culture. It wasn’t until the 4th century that Christians abandoned that way of thinking and began celebrating the birth of Jesus, Christmas.
Then we have the Sober birthday. In AA since the 1940s, a sober birthday marks the anniversary of the day a person decides not to use drugs and alcohol or the day they sought treatment.
Another birthday is a Spiritual, Eternal, or Salvation birthday. The anniversary of the day someone made a significant commitment to their faith. In Christianity it is the day they accepted Jesus Christ as their savior or were Baptized, marking their "birth" into the family of God.
A "Heavenly birthday" is the birthday of a loved one who has passed. It's a recognition of the continued presence and influence of the loved one.
Birthday
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