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Isn’t it bizarre, when birthday and age is not relatable? Do you imagine a birthday party without cake and balloons?
The Western idea of a birthday celebration is still not popular among various countries even they do have their traditions to celebrate a birthday. Moreover, there are countries where no one celebrates a birthday like Morocco, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia etc. Let us take you on a trip around the globe to know, how different countries celebrate birthdays.
How Different Countries Celebrate Birthdays?
The south Asian countries have their long-standing traditions, hence they do have some weird birthday traditions even the age and birthday are not related to each other.
1. In South Korea, the newborn is already considered one-year-old accounting for the time spent in the womb; hence they are always one year older than their actual birthday. Moreover, they have different birthday traditions at different stages of life some of them are
(a) “Seire” it is celebrated 21 days after baby’s birth, with a meal of white rice cake called “Beakseolgi” and Sea wood soup called “Miyeokguk”
(b) Dol is celebrated on 365th day passed since the baby’s birth, everyone family and close friends attend the celebration, baby’s future will be decided according to the object he touches placed on the table.
(c) Beak il Due to the extreme weather conditions of South Korea, baby’s survival is a big deal hence “Beak il” is celebrated on the 100th day since the baby’s birth.
(d) Hwangap it is the 60th birthday celebration when a person complete the sexagenary cycle of the Korean zodiac.
Moreover, Korean also celebrates their birthday on New Year’s Eve when everyone turns a year old irrespective of their age.
2. Now let’s move to the neighborhood to China, Chinese people are very traditional however birthday traditions are somewhat the same in Korea and China, like the New Year’s Eve birthday celebration, method of counting the age etc. Do you think you can counter react to bad luck by chopping the meat into a certain number of pieces or by skipping a birthday at a particular age? In China, women do not celebrate their 30th, 33rd, and 66th birthday to avoid dangers and evil spirits, they remain 29 years old till their 31st birthday, moreover, they hide a piece of meat behind the kitchen’s door and chop it into 30 pieces and throw away the meat to avoid dangers on their 30th birthday and do the same thing on 33rd and 66th birthday, Chinese man avoid their 40th birthday and for longevity, Chinese people slurp long noodles without making them break.
3. Swatdee-kah!!!! welcome to Thailand, Thai people follow the Buddhist concept of making merit on their birthday, like donations in temples, setting a bird free to feel refresh or turtles to have a long life, a fish so that their life became calm like fish in the water, do you also want to make merit on your birthday than follow Thai traditions.
4. Everyone desired birthday gifts but do you want your ears to be pulled for on your special day? That happens in Russia, Russian people pull ears of birthday boy or girl, in Russia birthday celebration before the birthday is forbidden, like Chinese people Russians also avoid 40th birthday, birthday parties take place over weekends, and pulling ears also followed by saying grow up don’t be noodles.
5. The tradition of pulling ears is also in Hungary, Hungarian people sing God bless you live so long your ears reach your ankles.
6. Your birthday will be great if you are awakened early in the morning and people around you shouting Mordida! Mordida! And just after you find your face shoved in cake and your hands tied behind your back; welcome to Mexico the tradition is called la Mordida.
7. In the Caribbean mostly in Jamaica, a huge amount of flour is thrown on the birthday boy or girl by family and friends and the worst part is water thrown at first making it hard to remove the flour.
8. Well everyone is interested in lives North Korean people since they are still not exposed to the world, the North Korean people are not allowed to celebrate their birthday on July 8 and December 17 since these are the death dates of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-ill even north Koreans displaced their birthdays to avoid these dates.
9. In Canada, the 16th birthday of a girl child is celebrated as sweet sixteen
10. In Spain and Portugal 15th birthday celebration is a huge deal for a girl child, in Spain birthday of a person is also celebrated on the birthday of a saint, whom the person is named after.
11. In the Philippines, the 18th birthday, of a girl and the 21st birthday of a boy is celebrated.
Hence, having two birthdays in the year to account for the age in the womb, by throwing noodles to flour, there are thousands of bizarre birthday traditions around the globe, so the birthday celebration is more than that cutting cake and decorating a room with balloons, this is how different countries celebrate birthdays, find out the tradition of your country and make a vow to have a traditional birthday party on this birthday happy birthday in advance.