When my Grands put candles on a birthday cake this week, maybe they should put red ones for decades and blue ones for individual years. Even then, it’ll be a lot of candles and after they’re lit, I’ll make a wish and blow quickly.
Why do some people say, “Oh, don’t do anything special for my birthday. It’s just another day”? It’s never just another day for parents when their child is born, and birthdays certainly aren’t an ordinary day to children. No matter the age, birthdays should be celebrated with cake and ice cream and candles and singing. When my young Grand asked why we have birthday cakes and candles, my initial thought wasn’t good enough. Surely there’s a better reason than because we always have.
Burning candles can be traced back to the Ancient Greeks who burned candles as offerings to their gods and goddesses. Round, moon-shaped cakes were carried to the temple of Artemis, the goddess of the moon and the hunt; candles on those cakes symbolized the glow of the moon.
It’s believed that in the 1400’s German bakeries marketed sweet cakes for birthday parties, known as Kinderfests, for young children. Lighted candles, the number equal to the child’s age and an extra one, were placed on a cake on the birthday morning and kept burning all day until after the evening meal. (I wonder how tall those candles were and if they were ‘switched-out’ during the day?)
Candles represented the light of life. The extra candle was for good luck or one to grow on. One to grow on reminds me of my grandparents’ birthday spankings, which were really love pats, and always ended with one to grow on.
Why do we blow out the candles? It was a superstitious belief that the smoke from the candles carries wishes to the gods. Now, it’s a tradition that’s been around for more than 600 years.
So, we can thank Ancient Greeks for traditional round cakes and lighted candles and German immigrants for bringing these traditions to our country.
Before blowing out the candles, we sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ It’s probably the most sung English song in the world, according to an article in Reader’s Digest. The tune for ‘Happy Birthday to You’ was originally composed in 1893 as ‘Good Morning to All’ by a kindergarten teacher, Patty Hill, and her sister, a pianist and composer, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Miss Hill sang, “Good morning to you, Good morning to you, Good morning, dear children, Good morning to you,” and her students sang “Good morning to all” in response. It’s not known where or when the birthday lyrics originated, but they were published in a piano songbook in 1912 to the tune of ‘Good Morning to All.’
A birthday, no matter how many candles are on the cake, is a happy time to celebrate. Maybe my family will adopt the tradition of an extra candle. I like the idea of good luck, and my Grands will like one to grow on.
Susan Writes 
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