Celebrating or not celebrating a birthday is a matter of preference; but that doesn’t change the fact that once-a-year birthdays are a special day! Well, have you ever thought, where is the history of birthday celebrations based on?
In order to keep our memories alive, we assign time to them. For example, in order to remember a fun party we attended in the summer, “We attended a fun party last summer.” We simply map it to a certain time period. It’s simple; however, a very effective method is not unique to today’s people! This method, which is known to have been used in ancient times, is also the ancestor of today’s birthday events acceptable!
In ancient times, people used to assign time to these events and moments, just as we do now, in order to make the natural events they are constantly exposed to and the important moments they experience permanent in their minds, and at the same time keep a note of it. For example, when a big storm breaks; In order to remember this storm, they matched the time they were with with this storm and noted this match. It is known that the ancestor of birthdays, which can be celebrated even for days after being asked, comes from this matching and note-taking behavior..
Where and how did birthdays originate?
birthdays, first time in Egypt emerged and actually existed to express a different tradition that had a meaning far from its current meaning in the beginning.
The Egyptian pharaohs, who believed that they were transformed into God when they were crowned, therefore attached great importance to their coronation ceremonies. Since the ceremonies had an important place, various notes were of course kept on the times of the ceremonies. These ceremonies, which were accepted as the proclamation of the deity of the pharaohs, represented the physical birth of God. like this the day the individual became God became accepted as his birthday. This tradition, which developed within the scope of the belief system, has thus managed to survive to the present day.
How did birthdays become what they are today?
We have stated that the birthdays of the past and the birthdays of today do not have the same meaning. Those who included the cake-candle-wish trio in their birthdays, which have undergone a change of purpose since then, are the ones who, like the Egyptians, are another civilization famous for its gods. Greekswas.
To show their sense of sacrifice and desire for the Moon Goddess Artemis. Greeks who prepared moon-shaped cakes and used candles to decorate the cakes, symbolizing prayers; He thought that making a wish before blowing out the candles was a way of sending messages to the gods.
After the Greeks, it was the Romans’ turn.
Following the Greeks, the Romans also added birthdays to their culture.; however, this time, unlike the Egyptians and Greeks, the birthday was turned into an event that could be celebrated by ordinary citizens as well. Birthdays, which individuals organize and participate in order to have a pleasant time with their loved ones, thus He became far from divinity and became ordinary..
Patriarchy also played an active role in birthdays.
Birthdays went public in Roman times, yes; but this, of course, did not change the reality of patriarchy. It was a male-dominated civilization at the time. Women’s birthdays were not celebrated in Rome.. On the other hand, you can celebrate as you wish. Food needs of men over 50 are met, Besides the food, honey cakes were presented to them as gifts..