Birthday Fun Facts

Birthday Wishes in the Digital Age

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TIME magazine weighed in on birthdays last month with its 6 Rules for ‘Happy Birthday’ Etiquette in the Age of Facebook. Karol Markowicz claims “Facebook has changed the whole birthday game.” She notes remembering the day is no hardship since you’ll get an alert and a follow-up from Facebook. You know you’ll probably see several other friends posting about the birthday on your newsfeed too.

She says “social media should be complementary to other kinds of interaction, not in place of it.” Her advice? Say something at midnight to someone really special. If you’re a sibling you might also call at midnight. Call friends and family on the day. Prefer a call, but texting is OK, for new friends. Posting on Facebook is TIME approved only for old acquaintances with whom you only keep up via social media.

Personally I can’t believe any etiquette involves calling someone at midnight. I love my birthday more than most, but I don’t need calls in the wee hours. Sleep is my first birthday present to myself!

She also makes no mention of sending an actual birthday card. You remember those? They’re paper with folds and often have a funny sentiment inside. You stamp an envelope that goes in the mail (snail mail even!).

Image source: Cartoonlogodesigns.com

We get so little mail that matters these days. Spend the few bucks to send a birthday card to someone who makes you smile.

BTW, you can even order paper greeting cards online these days. Or rely on e-cards if you really must. Michael Bolton is not the only answer.

Secret Birthday Bill in Texas

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I have great respect for our elected officials — even the ones I didn’t vote. That said, I have to question whether Cindy Burkett, a Republican in the Texas Legislature, is doing her utmost to look out for her constituents by proposing a Secret Birthday Bill.

Image source: flaglane.com

House Bill 2766 was filed, per columnist Bud Kennedy, in response to a request from the city of Mesquite, TX. Apparently a stalking suspect tried to access women’s birthdays from public records…so they asked Burkett to address the legality of public workers disclosing birth dates.

I used to write about identity theft, so I recognize the use of birthdays in public records is a concern. Nevertheless, Kennedy reports, “As written, the bill would make a schoolroom birthday party a crime with a fine of up to $1,000.”

Fortunately, Kennedy appears to be taking creative license. There’s nothing in the available text of the bill mentioning schoolroom birthday parties or any fines. In fact, the law seems to be looking to rid county clerk officers of liability for disclosing a birthday that is already in the public record. In this litigious time that makes sense.

Making birthdays secret? I would never vote for that. Giving public officials a little more security when they’re doing their job? I could understand voting “yeah.”

Decoration & Decimation = Piñata time!

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I know I’m not alone in having thought the piñata originated in Mexico. Turns out piñatas may instead have come from China. Apparently the Chinese used colored paper to fashion cows, oxen, or buffaloes filled with seeds to mark their New Year.

Wendy Devlin writing about Mexico Culture & Arts tells us Marco Polo brought the idea back to Europe where they incorporated these fragile vessels (“pignatta” is the Italian for fragile pot – I dare you to see the word fragile and not think of A Christmas Story) into Lenten celebrations.

From the 14th to 16th centuries this stayed in Europe until Spanish missionaries headed over to North America, where the indigenous people already had a similar tradition of hanging a colorful clay pot filled with treasures outside the temple and breaking it open with a stick or club.

Piñatas even once had religious meaning. For instance, Devlin points out the seven points on a traditional piñata represented the seven deadly sins. (I’m not sure how letting kids grapple on the ground for a pile of sweets is competing the sins of greed, gluttony, envy or wrath, but that’s a debate for theologians I guess).

I’m amazed the piñata tradition has been around for centuries. Then again, my son begged for another one at his birthday this year.

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Surely, it helps they are so easy to make. Check out this video for a Mexican-style piñata that cost just $8 to make (not sure if she included the candy). Or visit Piñata Boy’s site for more varied instructions.

If you’re truly worried about etiquette for properly pounding the piñata, check out this blogger’s tips on How to Avoid Piñata Event Failure.

Finally, I’d encourage you to check out this awesome art project of a cowering human piñata!

Your birthday as a “horizontal event”

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Many cards imply a birthday is a good time to get horizontal with a significant other, but I recently learned that in marketing terms a birthday is an official “horizontal event.”

According to ZenithOptimedia’s Richard Shotton, a boost in sales can be vertical (linked to events happening at a set time and affecting a large group of consumers, such as Halloween) or horizontal (tied to annual events that happen at different times for each customer, such as birthdays).

The company examined the impact of birthdays on spending by interviewing 1,000 people about buying for themselves and the occasions that prompted the purchase.

The interviewees were far more likely to purchases clothes, watches and jewelry around their birthdays — for themselves. “Happy Birthday to Me!” Right?

Some 60% of survey respondents also specified the gifts they’d like to receive from others. The bigger question, the survey did not discuss, is whether the husbands listened…

Marketers are also learning to send birthday campaigns over email to ramp up revenues, and to use the Facebook birthday information to target advertisements to users, Shotton noted.

He concluded saying that birthdays can mean happy returns for companies that invest in appropriate marketing. I believe him. I remember every birthday going to Baskin-Robbins with my family to enjoy my free scoop of rainbow sherbet. Today I’m happier with my Panera birthday pastry or Starbucks free chai.

Image source: lisabishopfoodstylist.com

Image source: lisabishopfoodstylist.com

Tell me, what’s the best birthday marketing ploy you’ve experienced?

It’s my special day — mine and some 20M others.

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We’re always talking about a birthday as someone’s special day. Well, while it may be your special day, you’re likely sharing it with about 20 million other people around the world.

Wolfgang Fengler at the Brookings Institute divided the world’s approximate population by 365 days (he doesn’t appear to account for leap year babies) and came up with 20 million. Better yet, he did the math and determined that with an average life expectancy of 72 years some 285,000 people share your actual date of birth. He drills down (as social scientists like to do) and determines you’re at about 200 people who were likely born at the same moment you were.

Me, I didn’t want to get up early even when I was first introduced to the world. But sharing that moment with others around the world, considering time zones, there were some early risers and night owls among us.

Fengler also lets us look at regional demographic shifts around the globe and tells us where in the world our birthday buddies will be at various given times. It’s really cool and almost makes me think I should have stuck out that stats class ages ago. Only almost. I’m better off reading the social scientists’ results, I’m sure.

In the meantime, check out this National Geographic photo gallery capturing our population explosion.

A Birthday Problem? Who knew.

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The Birthday Problem is not about who to invite to your birthday party. Nor is about whether to serve cake or ice cream (answer: both). Rather, it’s something to do with numbers.

Me, I am all about number of presents. Number of parties. Number of people attending said parties. Those numbers I understand. I am not a math person.  I teach writing. I had to get my brother’s help to offer even a semblance of math literacy on the GRE’s.

Image courtesy of http://cdn.cakecentral.com/d/de/de9c8fa3_image.jpeg

Yet, apparently math folks have this probabilities question exploring how many people in the room will share the same birthday. (Of course, if you’ve the chart showing birthday frequencies, you might be ahead of the game). Dr. Math even has several archived probability problems with birthdays involved.

Also for you quantitatively minded, or “birthamathophiles,” here’s Jon Plotkin’s post about roots, squares and other words that make me glaze over. Those who are more patient than me will enjoy (yes, the number of people who qualify as more patient is very, very big). He discusses “The Perfect Birthday” and points to 6 and 28. I was born on the 6th. One more reason my birthday’s perfect? I’ll take it!

Happy Birthday…within reason

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So, you say it’s your birthday? You’re ready to celebrate with a massive blowout party. Or you’re going to try that new _________ you’ve always wanted to try. You’re going to really put it all out there because, after all, it’s your birthday.

That’s great. Really. Just don’t die OK?

Turns out we are a little bit more likely to kick the bucket on our birthday. What a spoilsport finding, right? Durned social scientists always have to find some way to ruin the fun.

Researchers in 2012 determined that on average people over the age of 60 were 14% more likely to die on their birthdays. In case you’re hoping their sample size was something piddly like say 14, regrettably they studied more than two million people and found a rise in deaths from heart attacks, strokes, falls and suicides.

Another study coming out in 2015, according to Business Insurance, found death rates up among those 20 to 29 on their birthday. “People in that age range have an average excess death rate reaching 25.4%,” the article summarized — particularly if their bdays were on the weekend.

Because I don’t want this blog post to be a total be a total downer, check out Ranker.com’s list of celebrities who died on their birthdays. Just a few notables include: playwright William Shakespeare, musician Sidney Bechet, and actress Ingrid Bergman.

Enjoy this Wilco & Billy Bragg song about Ingrid Bergman as my parting thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKlz1QDU480

To a Leapling with Love

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Image source: http://www.mystro.com/CompSmallweb.jpg

 

My near-nephew is a “Leapling.” This is not a terribly common word, but neither are people who celebrate their birthdays on a Leap Day. According to International Business Times’ (IBT) report on the science of leap years, “The chance of being born on Leap Day is 1 in 1,461.”

The Leap Day was introduced thousands of years ago when we transitioned from the Roman Calendar to the Julian Calendar. The switch resulted in an extra day added to February nearly every four years. Yeah, I thought it was every four years guaranteed, but apparently the year also must not be easily divisible by 100 – so 1900 didn’t get a Feb. 29 while 2000 did.

I hadn’t thought of it before, but apparently there are even countries that have laws that define when a leapling will come of age in legal terms. According to timeanddate.com, in New Zealand it’s Feb. 28, while in the U.K. it would be March 1.

Also in the IBT, Dave Smith wrote in 2012 about celebrating his 6th birthday although he was born Feb. 29, 1988.  Other sites point to the record-keeping Keogh family who are in the Guinness Book of World Records for birthing three consecutive generations on Leap Day!

Personally, I’m more impressed by Karin Henriksen of Norway who apparently gave birth to a daughter in 1960, and sons in 1964 and 1968, ALL on Leap Day. That’s taking family planning to a whole new level!

No Birthdays in Bhutan?

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Living in a largely Buddhist kingdom nestled high in the Himalyas, the Bhutanese do not typically celebrate their birthdays. Writing in Travel + Leisure, Alan Brown credited this to their measuring time by “sunrises and seasons, not by dates.” In fact, when citizenship cards were issued to the Bhutanese everyone was given the birth date of January 1. Some 60% of people didn’t even know their date of birth!

Yet this is a kingdom that has eschewed GDP in favor of Gross National Happiness. They value happiness above all, but don’t have Happy Birthdays?!

Perhaps this says something about happiness coming from doing good and being part of something larger rather than focusing on the self. Still, giving up honoring the individual on his or her birthday would not make me happy. Nevertheless, I love this tradition shared by a Canadian teaching in Bhutan, in which schoolchildren share toffees (he baked cookies) so as to give on a birthday rather than receive.

Smiling Bhutanese schoolchildren. Source: commons.wikipedia.org

Smiling Bhutanese schoolchildren. Source: commons.wikipedia.org

Two Bhutan travel companies I visited online also noted that younger generations are now more particular about their birth dates and the birthday celebration trend is growing among urban dwellers.

Plus, Bhutan’s royal family members are feted on their birthdays. The reigning king’s birthday garners three days of festivals. Now, that’s a birthday!

A birthday resolution?

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It’s the start of a new year. Many people will have made resolutions. Some will even stick with their promises to eat better, stop smoking, get in shape, or save money the entire year. (If that’s you, congratulations. Even if you make it into February — yeah, you!).

Photo from: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20452233,00.html

Photo from: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20452233,00.html

Another time for big promises to ourselves is our birthday. It’s a second fresh start to the year. Our year. Not a calendar year. The year unique to us. Last year, I resolved to start this blog. This post marks three months in! Whoo-hoo.

I’m in favor of saying resolutions out loud. Telling everyone and asking them to keep you accountable. It’s something I tried with my #365novel project where I was writing a page a day.

Other advice, offered by a life coach on Huffington Post, is to be specific and resolve to do something that is achievable.

The American Psychological Association suggests starting small and being kind to yourself along the way if you falter in keeping to your resolution.

The most surprising tip I came across? Drink OJ. Or lemonade. According to WebMD’s tips, exercising self control depletes our blood-glucose level! Perhaps my aversion to OJ is why I have so little self-control?

Image from: healthyconfidentyou.com

Image from: healthyconfidentyou.com

What birthday resolutions have you made in the past? What has helped you to stick with them? Please share!