Ancient Egyptians are credited with inventing the celebration of birthdays.
But the first mention, 5000 years old, was not for someone’s ‘birth’ day but for the day of the crowning of a Pharaoh (ruler).
Since the crowning of a ruler in Egypt was seen as the birth of Pharaoh as God, it was a big deal.
Ancient Greeks borrowed this tradition and started baking moon-shaped cakes to pay tribute to the Greek moon goddess, Artemis.
They added candles to represent moonlight.
Romans took the practice a step further and are believed to have been the first civilization to celebrate the birthdays of common people.
Birthday celebrations became mainstream in the 4th century when Christians began celebrating the birthday of Jesus.
Till this point, Christians considered it a ritual of non-believers, because it was tied to pagan gods.
The tradition continued to evolve as people traveled, and the modern birthday celebrations are said to have come from the German celebration called Kinderfest (18th century).
On the morning of a child’s birthday, he or she would receive a cake with lighted candles – one for each year they’d been alive, plus another to symbolize the hope of living for at least one more year.
The family kept replacing the candles as they burned out throughout the day, as no one could eat the cake until after dinner.
After dinner, the birthday boy or girl would make a secret wish and blow out all the candles.
It was believed that the smoke carried their prayers & wishes to gods who lived in the skies (that smoke helped to ward off evil spirits is another belief).
