Birthdays are original, personal and noteworthy traditions. While some people like to forget them; others prefer smaller celebrations; but for some, the day must be a flag-waving, band-playing joyous merrymaking occasion. We are so used to celebrating our birthday every year that it seems like it's been a tradition almost forever!! But there too is a birthday history, and a place and time it all began.

Since people in ancient times had no way of keeping track and marking time there was little attention paid to the anniversary of a person's birth. Everyone realized that people grew older as time passed, but they didn't mark any special milestone for it. Only when scholars began taking notice of the moon's cycles, did they pay attention to the changing seasons and the pattern that repeated itself over and over so they began to mark and note time changes. Historians tell us that this was the start of birthday history. Eventually, the first calendars were formulated to mark time changes and other special days. From this tracking system came the ability to celebrate birthdays and other significant anniversaries the same day each year.

Birthday celebrations, it is also said, began as a form of protection. It was a common belief that evil spirits were more dangerous to a person when he or she experienced a change in their daily life, such as turning a year older. To protect the birthday person from harm, friends and family would gather around the birthday person and bring good cheers, thoughts and wishes. Giving gifts brought even more good cheer to ward off the evil spirits. It is even believed that noisemakers were used at birthday parties as a way of scaring away the evil spirits.

The birthday custom of lighting candles originated with people believing that the gods lived in the sky and by lighting candles and torches they were sending a signal or prayer to the gods so they could be answered. By blowing out the candles and making a wish they believed it was just another way of sending a signal and a message.

Historians seem certain that people observed birthdays for centuries; however, there are only a few records to indicate celebrations too place. The only documented birthdays are for high-ranking nobility, kings and other important people. Common people, especially children, never celebrated their birthdays. It is believed that nobility were the only people wealthy enough to throw such celebrations, and probably were the only ones thought to be important enough to have been written about or remembered. Historians believe the early birthday bashes developed the custom of wearing birthday "crowns" as time went on.

The Germans were first to starting celebrating children's birthdays, which were called "kinderfeste". The word "kinderfeste" is from two German words 'kinder' meaning children and 'feste' meaning festival or party.

Today, every grownup and child eagerly awaits the birthday party, though some grownups are reluctant to admit it. And that's why we’re here devoting our energy to build this site and help you make that day so very special.

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