A close family friend passed away last year after a struggle with cancer, she was only in her fifties. At her funeral, my sister asked her husband the rhetorical question: “She was such an influential person and made such a spiritual contribution to anyone that crossed her path, why someone like her so soon?
My brother-in-law answered with another question “She has done more than most people her age. Maybe her work here is done?”
What a testimony to someone`s life, what a life to have celebrated.
This got me thinking how quickly we just send a Facebook message or WhatsApp to a special person on their birthdays, like checking something off on your to do list for the day.
Did you know in the United States when someone is turning 80 they can request a birthday card from the President from the White House Greetings Office!
And did you know a newborn in China is considered age 1, calculated not in calendar years, but a count of the number of Jovian stars whose influence one is believed to have lived through. Eastern Mongolia has a different system for measuring a person’s age, which is based on the number of lunar cycles that have passed (since birth for boys; girls are measured from conception) .
Why celebrate one`s Birthday?
Birthday celebrations first started out as a form of protection.
The earliest mention of a birthday was the Egyptian tradition of celebrating the “birth” of a god. It is assumed that the ancient Greeks adopted this tradition of celebration and like many pagan cultures, thought “birth” days “welcomed evil spirits.”
Europeans were the first to make use of noisemakers on someone`s birthday with the purpose of keeping evil spirits away.
Birthday candles most likely originated from Greece. In the 18th century where moon shaped cakes with lit candles were offered to lunar goddess, Artemis, to recreate the glow of the moon and her beauty. The smoke of blowing out candles with a wish was a way to lift prayers and wishes to the tops of Mount Olympus home of the Greek gods.
German bakers invented the birthday cake as we know it today. The first of these cakes were sweetened bread dough topped with sugar. And we also have them to thank for “kinderfeste” celebrating a child’s birthday, that is the closest to today`s style of birthdays. Kids were given a cake with one candle for each year they had been alive, plus one for the hope of living one more year.
No matter what the origin, remember to appreciate one`s birthday.
Reflect, celebrate, eat cake, blow out candles and make a lot of noise!!!
KVV Inc Attorneys | Janene Visser
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