Brace for a Birthday Flour Storm

November 20, 2015Jenn Goddu 1 Comment

Before today, I’d always associated flour with birthdays in terms of making a cake. Now, however, I will have to rethink this.

Did you know that in Germany, on someone’s 16th birthday it is tradition to throw flour over his or her head? Apparently at 18 they do eggs. (I did not find any indication they continue through the cake recipe with sugar at 21 or baking soda at 25). Actually, at 25, unmarried men are treated to sock garlands around their homes. The Sockenkranz labels them confirmed bachelors. Sort of like the Pepper Person tradition in Denmark.

Better yet, in Jamaica, no one is immune from this powdery tradition. Mango Salute magazine reports family and friends “spend days devising cunning ways” to enable a so-called “Flour Shower” before adding on some kind of liquid leaving the birthday boy or girl covered by goo (Too bad giving umbrellas is verboten).

This tradition is also seen in Indonesia. Blogger Lily Wiggins shared her own experiences being floured there, along with her appreciation for how the tradition prompted even strangers to smile and wish her “Selamat Ulang Tahun!”

There are other cultures that butter the nose of the birthday celebrant, so I pity the single man of Canadian and Jamaican descent spending his 25th birthday in Germany. He’d be surrounded by socks and slipping into his birthday with a buttered nose and floured head!

Photo credit: martinak15 / Foter / CC BY

Gift Giving Taboos

November 13, 2015Jenn Goddu 2 Comments

Photo credit: / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

For many people part of the excitement of birthdays is the gifts. I’m not only talking about kids. Adults can get pretty loopy about the loot they receive too.

In the interest of helping out loyal readers of this blog, I’ve compiled a list of gifts to avoid for the superstitious and with attention paid to international customs:

It’s bad luck to give a clock or timepiece gift in China as the word for clock sounds like death.
Handkerchiefs are another bad choice (because you know you were ready to give those monogrammed ones you made!) as they are used to wipe away sadness and frustration and you don’t want to draw those to the birthday recipient.
Moroccans may not want their gifts in yellow, pink or violet as those are colors associated with death.
Put a small amount of money in a new wallet, purse, or piggy bank to give the receiver good luck or to ensure that they will never be without money (depending on which interpretation of the tradition you adhere to).
Shoes can be a mistake as they symbolize giving the birthday guy or girl the ability to walk away forever.
Giving an umbrella or fan is thought to be bad luck too (because the Chinese words for fan and umbrella sound like the word meaning to scatter or to lose).

Apparently, the way to counteract many of these superstitions is for the birthday boy or girl to pay the giver a token sum (even a penny). In this way they have paid for this item instead of getting it as a gift. Somehow that keeps the chi/fates/bad luck elves at bay.

And whether or not you are superstitious, you should probably steer clear of self improvement gifts. You might have the best of intentions, but you could easily offend your recipient by wrapping up that diet cookbook or bathroom scale as a birthday gift.

Need help with the wrapping of your now appropriately chosen gift? I blogged some suggestions in the past.

Birthday Branding

November 6, 2015Jenn Goddu 1 Comment

When a company or organization uses a birthday as a way to emotionally appeal to consumers, you can imagine I’m easily sucked in.

Recently I saw a commercial online that truly embraces the birthday spirit. I enjoyed the video, but watching the behind the scenes video really enhanced my experience. So I decided that, even though I don’t know where this company is providing energy to the masses, I would highlight it’s super-sweet birthday celebrations commercial:

What I hadn’t realized the first time I watched was that they had 100 distinct cakes for each of the people feted in this video. Fun! And I love that they celebrated a dog’s birthday too!

Photo credit: / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

On the accompanying video, they collect insights into what a birthday means from people from the commercial production. A director says, “birthdays really tell you about where you are in your life, where you’ve been and where you’re going.” While others talk about the joy of wishing on the cake candles, appreciating the birthday milestone, and the fun of bringing family and friends together to celebrate you.

It’s the heartfelt enthusiasm throughout that makes me smile — in the commercial and its accompanying behind the scenes. So, while I can be suspicious of businesses that try to sucker us into spending $ with an appeal to birthday bliss, this one I had to share. It’s a dose of birthday sugar without calories to feel guilty about!

What the survey says about birthdays!

October 2, 2015Jenn Goddu 1 Comment

Ok, growing up one of my favorite shows to watch when my parents left me unattended was Family Feud. Yep, I have just admitted that publicly for the world to see.

Photo credit: jacorbett70 / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Now, as an adult, I still love to learn what a good “survey says.” So imagine my delight to discover that someone did a survey to discover what would be the happiest day to have a birthday!

Turns out that in the UK it’s June 20. The Mirror tells us this is because it is the day with the most daylight.

Apparently, of the 2,000 people surveyed, those who had birthdays in June were the happiest with the month of their celebrations. While August celebrants came in a close second in terms of satisfaction with their birthday month.

November birthday celebrants were least likely to be content with their lot. The Mirror further reported: “The bleakest day for a November birthday was revealed as the 10th, with the highest number of people (54 per cent) of respondents claiming that they weren’t happy with the day.”

To me these results go against all common wisdom about birthdays! Those who have summer birthdays never got to celebrate in school and have to deal with friends and family summer vacations when trying to set up a party.

Or what about the difficulties suffered by the December and January babies who have to compete with holidays and the malaise that follows the crush of December gift-giving and fetes?

I’m going to argue these results are skewed due to a small sample size, being offered only to Britons, and somehow influenced by the survey sponsor being Mars Bar Cakes. In the meantime, I will continue with my wholehearted belief that October 6 remains the very best day for a birthday. Come on fellow Libra — who is with me?

Brilliant Birthday Cakes

September 25, 2015Jenn Goddu 1 Comment

I’ve written recently about birthday disasters and birthday generosity. But who doesn’t love a good piece of cake?

Photo credit: Smithsonian’s National Zoo / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Today I want to celebrate the birthday as a day to get creative with cakes. Herewith a gallery of fun birthday cakes I found doing a simple search on the fantabulously useful Foter.com:

The Ghostbusters sheet cake:

Photo credit: poppet with a camera / Foter / CC BY

Or the Super Mario cake (I tried this birthday theme when my son turned five and am NOT sharing my efforts although they were certainly creative…hey, at least it tasted good).

Photo credit: Fays cakes / Foter / CC BY-ND

Or this Lego one (which looks like even I could make it with some sheet pans and cupcakes):

Photo credit: fd / Foter / CC BY-NC

Or this one Angry Birds-themed delicacy:

Photo credit: Wicked Little Cake Company / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Or this delicate looking one:

Photo credit: distopiandreamgirl / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Or this cake presumably tailored to a photographer in the family:

Photo credit: ayos lang / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

I truly admire the originality people put on display when they want to serve up something special to friends and family. It’s one more reason that birthdays are so beautiful!

Photo credit: Jamie Anderson / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Please share your great designs below. I’d love to see them!

Social Media Birthday Bash

September 11, 2015Jenn Goddu Leave a comment

Maybe you’ve seen a shared request on social media asking you to help a birthday someone to receive a landslide of likes or retweets or birthday cards or other greetings.

One woman recently went to Facebook to ask people in Roanake, Va. to come celebrate her son’s birthday at a local park with a water balloon fight. “I thought maybe a few people on my friends list would bring their kids,“ the nine-year-old’s mom wrote. “Instead it has reached people from all over the world.”

Photo credit: Steve Wilhelm / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

Yahoo Parenting took the opportunity to interview some experts about whether this approach was a good idea. Yep, let’s just consider Yahoo Parenting the birthday buzzkill from now on.

One expert suggested the birthday could make the child feel alienated. Another suggested the mom wasn’t empowering her son. Both agreed labeling the child as someone who needs help making friends was not a wise move.

There were also concerns about the singular focus on the birthday and one of the experts suggested instead this should have been embraced as a special family day.

Photo credit: garrellmillhouse / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

Now, my seven-year-old will be the first to tell you I am no parenting expert, but I wonder why facilitating your son having a crazy wild water balloon party and giving him the opportunity to meet with all kinds of new people (who might become friends) is a bad thing. At least this Mom’s turn to social media involved actual human interaction rather than those pleas that ask for messages or tweets or likes and represent nothing more than a bunch of strangers pushing a button on social media.

Me, I’m going to applaud this Mom for taking initiative. She helped her home-schooled son get out there for an opportunity to interact with more kids and gave him a party he won’t soon forget.

Birthday Snub Shooting

September 4, 2015Jenn Goddu 1 Comment

Reading about a Minnesota man getting sentenced to nearly 28 years for shooting three people when they didn’t sing the Birthday song for his girlfriend has made me rethink my view on birthday catastrophes.

I used to think a birthday disaster was about who came or didn’t come to your party. Like in middle school the worst thing that might happen is the cute boy you had a crush on not coming to the party…Or the cute boy attending your party and then there being spin the bottle and you getting picked to kiss him but having the most gross breath ever. TRAGEDY.

But then I read about this shooting. The guy brought his girlfriend to a birthday party for someone else and was incensed that they didn’t sing for his girl, who happened to share the same birthday.

In trying to find this Birthday Song story again, I also came across other articles about shootings at birthday parties. Before this I might have thought the girl who’s 16th birthday invite went viral and ended up with rioting in the streets was the worst I’d heard.

There are also many social media videos posted of people’s hair catching fire while blowing out the cake candles Or of the candles causing other decorations and the entire room to catch on fire. Another top ten list will leave you grimacing.

This is just depressing to see all this bad associated with birthdays. So, to turn it around, here’s a fun birthday video from Mr. Bean who celebrates solo but in style.

Photo credit: fmgbain / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

The Politics of Birthdays

August 21, 2015Jenn Goddu Leave a comment

I am going to have to start suspecting anyone who wants to know my birthday!

So, I’ve written about advertisers wanting to know our birthdays to better target us. Plus, twitter wants to know your birthday now, too, so that it can — yes — give the information to advertisers. But now politicos are getting in on the action too!

Image:
http://media.graytvinc.com/images/vote131.jpg

I was intrigued by a headline announcing presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton was asking her supporters for their birthdates. On her site, under the headline, “Who doesn’t love birthdays?” we’re told “Hillary always remembers a birthday.” We’re then promised a “personal note” on our special day if we provide an email address, zipcode, and date of birth.

That’s the thing, points out the New York Times’ Derek Willis. With a date of birth along with zip code, Clinton’s campaign can better target its campaign communications. “The date she’s even more interested in is Nov. 8, 2016. Election Day.”

I noted the date of birth form asks for the year of birth. We don’t really need to know how old someone is to send them a birthday greeting, yet it will help Clinton’s team in determining what messages to send and when.

You know what, though? I’m still interested in what Clinton will say in a “personal” email on my birthday. So, I signed up. Of course, once I did the campaign asked me for $. I’ll wait to see what she says on my birthday before deciding to make any contribution!

Photo credit: SEIU International / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

Birthday Monster

August 14, 2015Jenn Goddu Leave a comment

MTV published a list recently of nine birthday behaviors that make you a monster. Apparently now “birthdayzillas” is a thing.

BOOOOOOOOO

Here are the nine no-no’s:

Not calling your parents (or answering their call)
Caring too much about who does and doesn’t come to your party
Not saying thank you
Turning your birthday into a multi-day celebration
Repeating that it’s your birthday over and over again
Wearing accessories meant for royalty
Drinking too much
Expecting presents
Thinking no one else can have the same birthday

I’m going to say it again: BOOOOOOOOOO

Photo credit: Francine Clouden / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

Certainly I agree with the premise of a birthday not being a day on which you can forget your manners and lord it over others in an awful way. But I’ve done too many of the things on this list in my lifetime (and, yes, I’m admitting that this will even have been after I became an adult) to accept they’re all full monster behavior.

Some we can’t control. Or, in the case of #7, realize only the morning after that we should have better controlled…

But what if we get a tiara as a present (#6)? That would make it rude not to wear it (see #3). Or maybe our birthday is spreading out over several days because one group of friends wants to take us for dinner and then a friend from work wants to get together the next day and then a gift arrives late and, before you know it, it’s been a birthday week.

Let’s not go around making a list of NO’s connected to the birthday. There are so many NO’s already every other day of the year. Your birthday is a day of YES! That’s one big reason it’s so great.

Birthdays are Best

Everything about birthdays. A blog focused on birthday fun facts, parties, tunes, trends and more. And there will be cake.

Widgets

Search

#birthday