Tag Archives: birthday

Half Birthday Celebrations

Nationality: Columbian, American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 10, 2015
Primary Language: English

Informant S is 21 years old from Boise Idaho. He is a Philosophy major who also plans on attending Medical School. He is half Columbian and half American.

Basically every March 1st, my dad would send me a card or message of some sort, um celebrating my half birthday, which for some reason he gave a lot more priority to than my main birthday. We would usually go out and get half a cake or a doughnut, something that is representationally less than a cake, sort of driving home that half part. Then depending on what age I was going to be he would give me like half as much money. So if I was going to be like 14 years old, he would give me 7 dollars for my half birthday. And he would just do a lot of stuff that involved halves like half a card. Or if I wanted to eat something like a chocolate bar, he would give me like half of it. It would always be really fun to see what half things he would give me.

 

Analysis:

This half birthday celebration is a parody of a normal holiday of a birthday. It is a way for the informant and his dad to bond and poke fun at the usual way that birthdays are celebrated. This creative way to celebrate birthdays made the informant feel special and excited for the fun things his dad would come up with.  This special tradition forms a unique bond together between both of them.

Birthday Pan Dulce

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 43
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: San Jose, CA
Performance Date: March 28, 2014
Primary Language: English

My mother told me about this piece of Mexican birthday folklore from her family. Her father is from Mexico (Zacatecas specifically), and her mother is Caucasian, so she learned this tradition from her father (who learned it from his parents) This folklore is very important to my mother, because it’s a connection to her father’s heritage and is also a fun family tradition.

Every birthday, the birthday person is woken up by the other family members in the household by playing the song “Las Mananitas” (the morning song) The family members start the music while entering the birthday person’s room with a bed tray of Mexican sweet bread (pan dulce), Mexican hot chocolate, and presents. The pan dulce can be purchased from a local bakery (panaderia) or made at home, although the process of making it can take a long time, because the bread dough has to rise twice. So, having homemade pan dulce was always a very special occasion.

Because this only takes place within the family, it has become one way to indicate who belongs in the family. For example, after my cousin got married to her husband, when it was his birthday, my cousin’s family came into his room playing the song and holding pan dulce. It was surprising to him, but it was also an unofficial way of welcoming him into the family.

 

Chinese birthday noodles

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/20/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

INFO:
The informant’s parents would make her noodles on her birthday. No particular kind — just any sort of Asian noodles (not spaghetti) in soup, with no particular seasonings.

You have to eat noodles on your birthday and you can’t bite them — they symbolize long life, so don’t literally cut it short.

BACKGROUND:
There are a lot of noodle dishes in Asian culture, and the correlation between the long noodles and the idea of longevity is one that’s very prominent in Asian food cultures.

The informant’s parents would make her noodles on her birthday. No particular kind — just any sort of Asian noodles (not spaghetti) in soup, with no particular seasonings.

CONTEXT:
The informant shared this with me in conversation.

ANALYSIS:
I also grew up in a Chinese household, but I never heard the story about the noodles in the context of birthdays, only in general. It’s interesting to see how even when I’ve engaged with a particular piece of folklore, there is still variation in how that piece is presented.

Treating your guests to your birthday

Nationality: Russian
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 30, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Russian

“Birthday parties, you give your guests gifts, as a means of like, ‘Thank you for coming.’ And that translates as, like, if you’re having a birthday party, you pay for everyone to come. They don’t pay. They might give you gifts, but they don’t pay for anything. Also as like a, ‘Thank you for coming.’”

This is just another incarnation of the Russians’ famous hospitality. It would be unheard of to go into a Russian home without being offered at the very least a pot of tea and a snack. This culture is reflected into the way that birthdays are celebrated. Although we typically see birthday parties as a celebration of the person whose birthday it is, Russians see it more as a celebration of their loved ones, with the birthday as an excuse for getting together rather than a reason to celebrate one person specifically. A Russian would never dream of inviting someone to a party in his honor and then expecting guests to pay.

Camp Hess Kramer Happy Birthday Song/Celebration

Nationality: American
Age: 24
Occupation: Assistant Media Planner
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/22/13
Primary Language: English

A Jewish summer sleep-away camp in Malibu, CA by the name of Camp Hess Kramer holds hundreds of Jewish kids ranging from eight to seventeen for most of the summer.  As the kids are away from home, often for the first time for extended periods of time, the camp makes an extended effort to make birthday celebrations for kids who have birthdays during a camp session especially special.

A birthday celebration at the Camp Hess Kramer is quite different from the average singing of happy birthday song for an individual.  Typically, two different counselors create a new inventive skit that integrates the camper with the birthday into it.  The skit takes place in the dining hall where all the campers have gathered for a meal — breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  While the skit takes place the camper is asked to come to the center of the room and must perform some activity involving the skit.  After the skit ends a unique version of happy birthday song is sang to the camper. The song goes as thus:

“Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday. Happy birthday to you.  Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you.  Skip around the room, skip around the room, we won’t shut up till you skip around the room. Skip around the room, skip around the room, we won’t shut up till you skip around the room.  Go the other way, go the other way; we won’t shut up till you go the other way.  Go the other way, go the other way; we won’t shut up till you go the other.  Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday. Happy birthday to you”

This song is sung for each birthday camper and also a previous version had at the end a chant where all the campers say, “Lick the floor! Lick the floor! We won’t shut up till you lick the floor!”  This version in the past few years has been taken away because of sanitary issues — as one can imagine the floor of a dining hall at a sleep-away camp is far from clean. During this song the camper must follow the song and physically follow the song’s directions as “skipping around the room” and different things like that.

I found this story of the happy birthday song rather interesting because it is a variation of the tame, mundane “Happy Birthday Song” and shows kids ability to turn twists and ideas onto songs.  The “lick the floor chant” reveals younger kids interest and making others complete gross tasks similar to dares that people make each other do.  The celebration for the kid in front of the camp also occurs I think to make him feel more special.