Birthdays : Beyond Cake and Ice Cream

Dani Tate-Stratton, Nikki Tate

Description

Inspired by memories of fantastic family birthday parties, mother-and-daughter team Nikki Tate and Dani Tate-Stratton researched the history of birthdays in order to answer such questions as, How much does where you grow up influence the way you celebrate getting a year older? Have people always celebrated birthdays? The more they investigated, the more they realized that there's a lot more to birthdays than cake, presents, a few games and perhaps a goody bag. They discovered there are as many ways to observe birthdays as there are places in which to do it.

Sujets

• Traditions
• Birthdays
• Holidays
• Juvenile Nonfiction
• Party (canción)
• Growing Up
• Celebration
• Grandparent
• Elder
• Cake
• Gift
• Games
• Food
• Community
• Diversity
• Holiday
• The Birthday Party
• Feed
• Cultural Studies
• History
• Party
• Celebrations
• Game
• Celebration (Floride)
• Cake (gâteau)
• Festival
• Culture

Informations

• Publié par: Orca Book Publishers
• Date de parution: 07 mars 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781459812994
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Text copyright © 2017 Nikki Tate and Dani Tate-Stratton
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Tate, Nikki, 1962–, author Birthdays: beyond cake and ice cream / Nikki Tate and Dani Tate-Stratton. (Orca origins)
Includes index.
Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-1-4598-1297-0 (hardback).— ISBN 978-1-4598-1298-7 (pdf).— ISBN 978-1-4598-1299-4 (epub)
1. Birthdays—Juvenile literature. I. Tate-Stratton, Danielle, 1987–, author II. Title. gt2430.t38 2017 j394.2 c2016-904488-2 c2016-904489-0
First published in the United States, 2017 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016949042
Summary: Part of the nonfiction Orca Origins series for middle readers. Illustrated with color photographs, this book covers the history of modern celebrations and discusses the many birthday traditions around the world.
Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
The authors and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at the time of publication. The authors and publisher do not assume any liability for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
Design by Rachel Page Front cover photos by Shutterstock.com , iStock.com , William Steen Back cover photo by iStock.com Author photo: Nichole Taylor Photography Ebook by Bright Wing Books ( brightwing.ca )
ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS www.orcabook.com
For ECW, who has had more birthdays than just about anyone I know. Looking forward to sharing many more with you in the future. —NT
For Peter and Hitomi, who orchestrated my most memorable birthday to date! For that, and so many other adventures, thank you! ­—DTS

Candles add the perfect finishing touch to any birthday cake.
iStock.com
Contents Introduction Chapter One: The Birth of Birthdays Party Like An Egyptian When in Rome Ancient Greek Birthday Festivals The Early Middle Ages What Day Is It? The Renaissance The Industrial Revolution Good Times or Sad? Big Birthday Bashes— Commemorating History Chapter Two: Celebrating Birthdays Around the World Keeping Track of Birthdays Birthday Treats Who’s on the Guest List? Invitations Let’s Eat! Birthday Gifts Fun and Games Making the Birthday Person Feel Special Birthday Treats Celebrating at School Birthday Songs Stevie’s Story Hoka’s Story Chapter Three: Milestone Birthdays Welcome, Baby! Alive and Well and Ready to Celebrate That’s One Big Party! Say Goodbye to the Past What Does the Future Hold? Coming of Age Growing Up Can Be Painful Don’t Lose Your Key! Time to Tidy Up! Respecting Your Elders Ana’s Story Dani’s Story A final word from the authors Glossary References and Resources Index Acknowledgments Cover Title Page Contents Beginning
Blow out your candles and make a wish for the upcoming year. Remember to keep your wish a secret! Getty Images
Introduction

Nikki’s fifth birthday party featured pony rides for all the guests.
Helga Williams
In our family, birthdays have always been eagerly anticipated and considered to be a great reason to celebrate. We’ve lived, studied and traveled in many countries, and our relatives come from Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Sweden and Italy. Over the years we’ve enjoyed borrowing birthday traditions from many different places and had a lot of fun inventing ways to celebrate that are unique to our family. A few years ago, my daughter Dani organized a memorable surprise birthday party for me. With so many friends and family gathered in one place, it was inevitable that we shared memories of other birthdays. We talked about birthday camping trips, the year we held a murder mystery party, and the time there were pony rides. We’ve stayed up late watching movies at sleepover parties, played classic North American games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Hot Potato and Pass the Parcel, and feasted on treats like cake, ice cream, hot dogs and potato chips. I love to dress up in costumes and have been known to show up at parties dressed as a pirate, a fairy or a clown.

Dani attended a friend’s fourth birthday party that had a country and western theme, complete with costumes.
Helga Williams
Memories of fabulous past parties were a source of inspiration for this book. We wondered if birthdays affect other families in the same way. How much does where you grow up influence the way you celebrate getting a year older? Have people always celebrated birthdays? The more we investigated, the more we learned there’s a lot more to birthdays than cake, presents, a few games and perhaps a goody bag. We discovered there are as many ways to observe birthdays around the world as there are places in which to do it. We found birthdays involving bullet ants, red eggs, flour throwing, door knob polishing and horse racing! Maybe next year we’ll be asking our friends to wish us saeng-il chukha hae (Happy Birthday) over bowls of miyeok-guk (seaweed soup)! How will you celebrate the start of your next year on Earth?

Papel picado (cut paper) banners indicate a celebration, such as a birthday, is in progress. AugustineChang/ iStock.com

An example at the Kom Ombo Temple of an early Egyptian calendar carved in stone. Zhaojiankang/ Dreamstime.com
one
The birth of birthdays
It’s impossible to know exactly when people first started to celebrate birthdays. At some point in the Bronze Age (between about 3300 BCE and 1000 BCE ), people started keeping track of time using calendars. Before that it would have been hard to pinpoint what day of the year a baby was born. Imagine not knowing exactly when to have your birthday party! While people knew roughly what time of year water froze and thawed or when it was time to sow and harvest crops, in ancient times the lack of a consistent calendar made it tough to keep track of important dates.

Someone who is born on February 29 during a leap year is called a leaper or a leapling . In non–leap years, leaplings celebrate on either February 28 or March 1.
Party Like An Egyptian
Though scholars are still debating the exact date calendars began to be used, it’s thought that the Ancient Egyptians were among the first people to use one, about 5,000 years ago. The Ancient Egyptian calendar had twelve months, each of which had 30 days. It takes the Earth 365 days to travel once around the sun, so the Ancient Egyptians didn’t have quite enough days to add up to a full year (12 x 30 = 360). They added an extra day (known as epagomenae ) to five of the months. Those spare days became feast days to commemorate the birthdays of Egyptian gods. The first day of each new year was said to be Ra-Horakhty’s birthday. Ra-Horakhty was the god of the sun in Ancient Egypt.

This ceiling in the Abydos Temple in Egypt shows early Egyptian astrological symbols.
AmandaLewis/ iStock.com
Egyptian kings were called pharaohs and were believed to become godlike once they were elevated to the status of pharaoh. Egyptians kept careful track of the positions and movements of stars and planets on their pharaohs’ birthdays; taking note of where heavenly bodies are at a given point in time is an important aspect of the practice of astrology . The Ancient Egyptians believed that the astrological readings of these living gods could affect harvests and other important aspects of life. When the pharaohs’ birthdays occurred, the whole community contributed to the occasion, often closing businesses for days at a time as they prepared huge feasts in honor of the important date.

Birthday Treats
Amon-Ra
Egyptians used decans (ten-day cycles) to decide which star sign corresponded with a birthday. Because there are thirty-six decans in a year, each zodiac sign spans three decans. Each decan is influenced by a different planet, leading to variations from birth date to birth date. I was born on January 9, which means that in Ancient Egypt I would have been Amon-Ra (for birth dates between January 8 to 21 and February 1 to 11). People born under Amon-Ra are said to be optimistic, intelligent and stubborn. —DTS

A coronation, such as the one shown here, was considered to be like a pharaoh’s birthday.
Passion Images/ Shutterstock.com
The date of a pharaoh’s coronation was also thought of as a kind of birthday because crowning a pharaoh elevated him to a new status. Thousands of years after the death of Pharoah Ramses II in 1213 BCE , the people of Egypt still celebrate both his birthday and the date of his coronation. At Abu Simbel, one of the many monuments he ordered to have built in his name, there is an inner sanctum that is normally shrouded in darkness. However, on two days of the year (the dates traditionally recognized as Ramses II