Every year the special day comes. The most anticipated day of the year for any of us. Its our birthday. A day of joy and celebration. A day of gifts, a day of extra love from everybody. A day when we are the most special individual and treated as if we were the Queen or Prince of England. So here are some interesting facts that has something to do with birthdays.
Firstly, although we might celebrate our birthday every year, our actual birthday only occurs once every 7 years! Not counting leaping years, the date we were born on moves each year to the following day of the week. For example, if we were born on Saturday March 15th, the following year, March 15th will fall on a Sunday, the year after on a Monday, and so on. This means our annual celebration is actually for our birth date - not our birthday - and in truth our birthday (the actual day we were born on) occurs only every 7 years!
Here are some Country facts relating to birthdays :-
In England, when a person reaches 80, 90 or 100 years, the person receives a telegram from the Queen.
Until quite recently, most Japanese children used to celebrate their birthdays on January 1st, regardless of which day of the year they were actually born on. Today however, most Japanese children celebrate on their actual birthdays. Also in Japan, usually only the birthdays of 60, 70, 79, 88, and 99 rate gifts. Also, gifts consisting of less than ten items in a set should be given in odd numbers (tea cups are sold in sets of five). Avoid the numbers 4 and 9 in general. White gift-wrap is associated with death (so is four of something).
In Korea, on a child's first birthday, the birthday child is dressed in special clothes. The friends and family all visit for a big feast, and leave money for the child. The child's future is foretold by the items it picks up. Also, the two most important birthdays are the 100th day and the 60th year.
In Denmark, when it's somebody's birthday a flag is flown outside the window. For children's birthdays, the presents are placed around the child's bed while they are sleeping, so they will see the presents as soon as they awake!
In Mexico, a piñata, made from paper mache and filled with sweets or other treats, is made in the shape of an animal. It is hung from the ceiling by a rope, and the birthday child is blindfolded, and hits the piñata with a stick, until it cracks open. Once the piñata is broken open, all the children share the treats.
In Russia, instead of a Birthday Cake, many Russian children are given a Birthday Pie! Instead of using icing to spell a message, Russian Birthday Pies have the message carved into the pie crust.
In Ireland, the birthday child is lifted by hands and feet, and "bumped" on the floor for good luck. The number of bumps given is the age of the child, plus one for luck!
Germans take birthdays seriously, sometimes receiving a half-day of vacation. Flowers and wine are common gifts among friends.
In China, small birthday gifts are given by family and friends. Age 30 is considered becoming an adult (there's quite a celebration). For men, age 60 is usually combined with retirement (for those doing physical labor). Do not give clocks as gifts (the Mandarin word for clock is similar to one for death). Avoid wrapping the gift using white, black or blue colors.
The French and Italian celebrate Name Days more so than birthdays.
In India, black and white gift-wrapping is considered unlucky.
In the Islamic world, green is a good color to use for wrapping.
Strange Birthday Facts :-
Since your last birthday 31,536,000 seconds have passed. In the past year your hair will most likely have grown 12 cm and your nail about 4 cm. Your heart beats at a rate of around of 72 to 80 beats per minute - since your last birthday it will have beat about 42,075,900 times. You breath at a rate of about 30 breaths per minute so, since your last birthday you have taken approximately 15,768,000 breaths. The volume of blood in your body is approximately 5 litres. The heart pumps about 280 litres of blood around your body every hour - that's 2,688,000 litres per year! The average garden snail (not one that has entered the Olympics 100 meters race) moves at around 0.03 mph. If one set out on your last birthday, and walked non-stop it would have traveled 263 miles. If you walked this distance non-stop you would complete it in around three days. Since your last birthday you will have had about 1,460 dreams. World population has grown by around 76,570,430 since your last birthday. In the time it takes you to read this another five babies will have been born. During the past year there have been more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world. The Earth is zooming around the sun at around 66,780 miles per hour! Since your last birthday the Earth has completed one journey around the sun traveling about 584,337,600 miles. If you counted 24 hours a day, you would be over 31,000 years old when you reach one trillion!
Cake, Candles, Balloons And Parties
There are a few possible explanations as to why we have candles on birthday cakes, nobody is completely sure how the tradition started. One possible reason is because the ancient Greeks used to take cakes (round to represent the full moon) to the temple of their goddess of the moon, Artemis. The Greeks are said to have placed candles on the cake to make it look as if it was glowing like the moon. It has also been claimed that the Germans invented birthday cakes, and celebrated birthdays with a cake called "Geburtstagorten". The Germans were known to have been skilled candlemakers and may have put small candles on their cakes, possibly for religious reasons. The tradition of sending birthday cards started in England about 100 years ago. Originally cards were often sent as an "apology" when a person couldn't visit somebody in person. Today we often sent birthday cards even if we can! The earliest birthday parties in history were held because people thought that evil spirits would visit them on their birthdays. They stayed close to their family and friends for protection. Later parties became social gatherings where friends and family would bring gifts or flowers to the person having their birthday. Today birthday parties are held just for fun! The first balloons are believed to have been children's toys, made from animal bladders and/or intestines, often filled with water. The Aztecs used to blow air into the bowels of sacrificed cats and twisted them into animal shapes and presented these to the gods as a sacrifice. Toy balloons were introduced by pioneer rubber manufacturer Thomas Hancock.
Trivia :-
More people celebrate their birthdays in August than in any other month (about 9% of all people). The two other months that rate high for birthdays are July and September. A recent survey suggests that more people are born on October 5 in the United States than any other day. October 5 holds a not-so-surprising significance, as conception would have fallen on New Year's Eve. The least common birth date in the U.S. is May 22nd. A Golden Birthday happens only once in a person's lifetime. It happens when the person's age and the date of the day they were born is the same.
To sum it all up. After reading this facts our next birthday will be more special. Happy Birthday to all of you in advance.
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