Birthdays hold a special meaning for us. They signify the day that we entered this world and became a part of the lives of our family and friends. As we grow older and enter new friendships, those that care for us want to help celebrate the fact that we are in their lives. Enter the birthday celebration.
For some, we merely gloss over this day in the hopes that no one will notice that another year has gone by. This usually occurs more frequently as we age. Being reminded that we have an extra wrinkle or that we don’t get out of bed as easily as we used to isn’t something we usually look forward to.
However, for others, this is a time of celebration. Reveling in our lives by inviting, or being invited by, our friends and family to come together and remember what it means to be human. Laughter, love, silliness, and remembrance; all these things tie together on the day of our birth.
Each of us celebrates in a different way. Some celebrate only on the day of. Others will celebrate the entire weekend, week, or even month. Some birthdays mean more than others; the decade markers for birthdays are usually momentous, along with 16, 18 and 21.
For myself, for the last 20 years my mother has called up to wherever I lived or worked and played a silly song that she found sometime in the ‘80s that is basically a happy birthday song from a spaceman singing especially for me, Jonathon. And each year, she regales my family and friends on that day, of the labor of my birth and how much she loves me even to this day. While handing me my favorite candy, that I can only get around my birthday, Cadbury Eggs.
But what about others in the Region? How do they celebrate?
For Beth Forbes, she’s getting ready to celebrate a milestone in style. “Well, I did start a 6-week celebration for my upcoming 50th on February 6th,” said Forbes. “Fifty is a big one and should have an extended celebration.”
“I celebrate the whole month,” said Kayde Martin. “My husband and I have the same birthday and it’s also our wedding anniversary that day too, so we have lots to celebrate.”
Others, like Anastacia Pickles celebrate their birthday for a whole week.
“The whole weekend,” declares Stephanie Swearington. “Birthdays are the best! For my kids we go all out and build out a theme. I made Muppets one year because we couldn’t find decorations and my son wanted a Muppet b-day theme.”
“As a kid I celebrated birthdays on the weekend between mine and my brothers, I hated it, said Leona Virgo. “As a married adult I happily celebrate it on the weekend/day off between my birthday and our anniversary, sometimes it’s a couple day between ourselves and our family and other times it’s only the two of us just happy we made it another year together.”
As you can see, each of us has a different view on birthdays. We all like to celebrate our birthdays in different ways, but no matter what the way we celebrate, it is all about celebrating our lives and being alive and most of all, human. Many happy returns.
