nikki tate and dani tate-stratton Dani attended a friend’s fourth birthday party that had a country and western theme complete with costumes Helga Williams 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 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 8
running head Papel picado cut paper banners indicate a celebration such as a birthday is in progress AugustineChang iStock com 9
nikki tate and dani tate-stratton 10 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 Party Like An Egyptian Though scholars are still debating the exact date calendars began to be used it’s thought that the Ancient Egyptians 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 11
