Today i.e., 20th August is my Birthday and someday got to be the day of my birthday. In my case it so happened that since my birth planet earth took 57 revolutions around the sun! I could have been born on any other day, ever possibility was wide open and thus my birth on 20th August was a chance happening. It was a completely unplanned event. With this reasoning when I look at 20th August then then there is nothing special about this day. Think of the fact that how many were born on this day, this figure cannot be calculated if we take the count from the introduction of the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was a reform of the Julian calendar, instituted by papal bull on 24 February 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar is named. It can never be the case that I was the only person to have been born on this day.
Look at the whole birthday aspect from the other perspective. While I am getting ready to celebrate 20th August – my Birthday, it dawned on me that for many people have died on this day and today will be the last day for many more. Think of the fact that how many died on this day, this figure cannot be calculated if we take the count from the introduction of the Gregorian calendar. Allow me to state, except my being born by chance on this day, there is nothing special about this day.
Having said the above, I doubt if the practice of celebrating Birthday’s is an ancient practice. I am saying this because there was no education, no record of events and people may not have recorded their date of births. Historically speaking, the Birthday celebration practice belongs to the early 20th century. Throughout the history we will find certain examples of Birthday celebrations, but mostly they were belonging to rulers, powerful members of the upper-class and god incarnations. For the rest of the population, if they even know the date – Birthday is just another day.
People of those days seldom used clocks. In fact there were no clocks. One of the many effects of the industrialization / industrial revolution is that it produced more clocks & pocket watches. People began to go their work / factories etc. as per the time. They began to understand how the time passes. They began to see the passage of time in their own lives. This led to the development or practice of celebrating birthdays. According to history, the birthday cake was a practice with the ancient Roman nobility. The candles on the cakes is adopted from Germany. As you see it today, celebrating birthdays because the norm / custom where there is an obscene show of extreme materialism.
The birthday song “Happy Birthday to You” was originally composed in 1893 as “Good Morning to You” by these Hill sisters. The song read as follows:
“Good Morning to you
Good Morning to you
Good Morning, dear children
Good Morning to You”
This song later cropped up as the ‘Birthday song’ in the 1931 Broadway musical ‘The Band Wagon’, now we all know it, sung for every birthday. Similarly, the Birthday cards began their journey recently in 1929. Form the above brief exposition, I can say that the new found pastime called celebrating birthdays owes to the industrial revolution. It gave people some sort of diversion from the daily pressures of work. As for me every day is my birthday. I am born daily. I retire to bed thinking I may not open my eyes the next morning. If I open my eyes and am still breathing, it is my Happy Birthday!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
