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Birthdays around the world
Birthdays
AROUND THE WORLD
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WRItING AND ARt by SAbRINA Lo
The myriad of cultures amongst the 195 countries on this planet all vary in practices and traditions but have one aspect in common: celebrating birthdays. Within the United States, people are quite familiar with the classic birthday cake with balloons, streamers, gifts, and the birthday song. Countries around the world have their unique take on birthday celebrations, with some following their history or customary beliefs.
Germany
Germany refrains from celebrations when it’s not quite time yet. It is considered rude and bad luck to tell a person “Alles Gute zum Geburtstag” (“Happy Birthday”) before their actual birthday. For the same reason, birthdays are never celebrated early; if the celebration needs to be moved to a different date, it is always moved to a day after the actual birthday.
China is known for its strong belief in fostering peace, prosperity, wealth, and luck. In order to incorporate such notions into Chinese birthday celebrations, it is customary for the birthday person to eat “longevity noodles.” The birthday person is supposed to slurp up the long noodles as much as possible without biting or chewing them to represent the longevity of one’s life. The more you slurp, the longer your life will be.
Canada gets its distinctive birthday tradition from its Scottish descendants. The birthday person’s friends and family grease up their nose with butter in order to make them too slippery to be caught by bad luck.
Similar to how the U.S. has birthday punches, Italy, Hungary, and Argentina celebrate the birthday person by tugging on their ear. They tug the birthday person’s ear the same amount of times as the age they are turning.
Pranks on the birthday person are common in many countries, including a unique tradition in Jamaica. They celebrate by “antiquing” the birthday person, where friends and family coat them in flour. Though this is usually done in an ambush or surprise, antiquing can also be organized.
China
Canada
Italy
