My family and I spent the new years eve of 2007 to 2008 at Disney. Since it was such a memorable trip, we bought a happy birthday cake hat as a souvenir in one of the stores of the amusements parks.  We had yet no idea how much this hat would mean to us. On my dad’s birthday, I believe it was in the year of 2008, my mom made my dad wear the hat whilst we sang him happy birthday to him. It was seen as a joke and we thought we would only do it once but every birthday afterwards, the member of the family that was celebrating his or her birthday would wear the hat. It became our family tradition. For me, it is extremely meaningful, not only because it reminds me of our trip, but also because it is a tradition that grew with me. At some point I thought it was really silly that I had to wear a birthday hat while people sang happy birthday to me, but the tradition grew so strong within my family that it became a pleasure.

I believe that the initial idea was just to buy something to remind her of the family trip. To have an object that represents a time where all of the family was in a break having a good time together. However, it became part of a tradition because it was a birthday hat and her family thought it would be nice to celebrate the birthdays wearing the hat. It’s not something that represents a superstition, yet an idea of having a good time. At my house, we normally do the “kitchen party” as we call it. It’s kind of a surprise party (not anymore because everyone celebrating a birthday knows it’s going to happen) that happens in the kitchen as soon at the person celebrating the birthday gets home. It’s amusing and I think it’s healthy to have these jokes during birthday parties.