A common tradition associated with celebrating a birthday? Even a child will immediately answer that on this holiday, the celebrant is served a birthday cake, decorated with beautiful, lit candles in an amount equal to the birthday of the birthday person. Next, a person must make a wish and blow out all the candles on the first try, while the wish is kept in strict confidence; it is believed that if all these rules are followed, the wish will certainly come true.
All this interesting action takes place accompanied by songs, hand clapping, chocolate fountains, the launching of Chinese lanterns and the joy of those gathered to congratulate the person celebrating his birthday. For an adult audience, when the cake simply cannot accommodate the required number of candles, you can offer another option: arrange the required number of candles in a circle, and inside this circle perform a belly dance with candles. Believe me, there will be even more delight than in childhood! The tradition of lighting candles on a birthday cake exists in many countries, both in Europe and in Australia and America. But where did this tradition come from, what is it connected with? There are several versions of the origin of the tradition of placing and lighting candles on a birthday cake.
Lighting candles on a birthday cake is a long-standing tradition that exists in many countries and is the most common. A cake with lit candles according to the number of years of the birthday person is, as a rule, the culminating part of the holiday, which completes a series of congratulations and wishes from family and friends. And now it’s hard to imagine a birthday without the song “Happy Birthday to you!”, making a wish and blowing out the candles. But hardly any of us know where this tradition came from and why candles on the cake are lit on a birthday. There are many versions and legends, but there is no documentary evidence.
The first takes us to ancient Greece. The ancient Greeks baked yellow pies and brought them to the temple as a gift to the moon goddess Artemis. In this case, the cake symbolized the moon, and the candle lit on it symbolized its light.
Another legend tells that the custom of decorating a cake with burning candles came from Ancient Persia. In those distant times, the inhabitants of the East had a custom of presenting a freshly baked flatbread with a burning candle as a gift to honored guests, thus expressing sincerity and warmth of feelings.
According to the third version, the tradition first appeared in medieval England. Various “secret” objects were hidden in the birthday cake, usually coins or small jewelry. At the festive table, the pie was ceremoniously cut and food was distributed to all the guests present. Everyone present anxiously expected that the treasured ring or coin would end up in their piece of the pie, because... it promised wealth and prosperity.
The fourth says that the tradition of lighting and blowing out candles on a cake, while making a cherished wish, appeared in Germany. It was believed that the smoke from extinguished candles carried the wish directly to the sky and contributed to its speedy fulfillment. In Germany, back in the Middle Ages, they knew how to make beautiful candles from wax. On birthdays, candles were placed in the center of the cake, symbolizing the light of life. It was believed that when the birthday person blows them out, his breath carries the desire straight to heaven. In the 13th century, a cake with candles was an indispensable attribute of children's birthdays in the villages of Germany.
They woke up the birthday boy at dawn with songs and brought him a cake with burning candles. However, he was not allowed to blow out the candles and start eating the confectionery product. The pie had to remain in this form until dinner: candles that burned out were replaced with new ones. And only at dinner the birthday boy got the right to blow out the candles and make a wish. As now, the wish had to be kept secret in order for it to come true, and the candles had to be blown out at once. But they lit not as many candles as the child was turning, but one more. IN
In Germany, there was even a special folklore character, the “birthday gnome,” who brought presents for birthdays, just as Santa Claus brings them for New Year. Nowadays, such gnomes no longer exist, but the tradition of blowing out candles remains.
The fifth legend tells about the origin of the tradition in Rus', back at a time when the main religion was paganism. It was believed that on the birthday the birthday person should be surrounded exclusively by friends and relatives. The candle on the cake was supposed to protect the birthday boy from the thoughts and actions of enemies and ill-wishers.
Like sacrificial fires, burning candles have long had mystical significance, and it was believed that a candle lit on a birthday was a guarantee of a wish coming true. However, the desire (which must remain secret) will only come true if the candles are blown out. Candles lose their magical power if the desire is spoken out loud. "
It was believed that on a name day, a person’s guardian angel was always next to him (after all, it was his holiday). If you make a wish and blow out the candles, it means that your message has been received by the angel, and it will definitely be fulfilled. One important feature of this ritual is that the wish made by the birthday boy will certainly come true if he manages to extinguish all the candles on the cake with one exhalation.
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“Happy Birthday, my dear,” Anya kissed her son on the top of his head, “and now we need to blow out all the candles.”
The bear looked at 7 candles, which merrily stretched their tongues towards each other.
- Don't worry, I'll help you. Look, now close your eyes really, really hard and make a wish.
- Which one? – Mishka looked at his mother with interest, “the best?”
Anya smiled:
- Of course, the very best. Let's…
Mishka closed his eyes as hard as he could as a child, trying to imagine a bike... big, beautiful... But a picture of his father’s warm hand popped up in his head. He even remembered the roughness of this hand and the smell of cigarettes emanating from it. Mishka shook his head, trying to return the bike, but the smell won out.
And then his mother’s hand fell on his shoulders. And my soul felt so good with these two most precious hands in the world - mom’s and dad’s.
- Want! - Mishka whispered like a spell, trying to forever remember the feeling of these two hands, and opened his eyes.
- Now we need to blow out all the candles. Come on, I'll help.
And together they blew out all 7 candles.
Mishka examined the small smoke torches and looked up at his mother:
- Mom, will everything come true now? That's it? That's it?
Anya smiled and, taking her son’s cheeks with her hands, said:
- Yes, everything will come true. You see the smoke rising into the sky. This is an Angel reading your wish. You have to really want it and then everything will come true.
Mishka closed his eyes again and mentally shook his Angel’s wing, saying, don’t let him down.
- Well, now we can have tea and cake...
What do you associate your birthday with?
Well, of course, guests. The closest and dearest. And, of course, cake.
This tradition has been around for many years. Probably, no one will say for sure where the custom of blowing out candles on a birthday cake came from. But the tradition is beautiful, that’s why it stuck.
According to historians, the ways in which this tradition came to us are different.
The first version goes like this. The ancient Greeks congratulated the goddess Artemis this way: a round cake and a candle symbolizing the light of the moon. Before the candle was lit, praise was offered to the goddess and a request was made. And the fire conveyed to Artemis the meaning of desire.
The second version says that the cake, twisted in a circle, was given to little Jesus. At the same time, the candle announced to the universe about the purity and purity of the newly born soul.
According to a third version, in medieval England it was customary to bake small objects into a pie, symbolizing some upcoming events. The pie was cut into pieces and distributed to the guests. And they, based on the objects they found, determined what awaited them.
A piece from the candles went to the person whose birthday was being celebrated. This candle symbolized the light of good fortune illuminating another year ahead.
In Rus', since distant pagan times, fire was considered a friend and helper if you knew how to handle it. It was almost the main assistant of a person. And it was believed that every year on your birthday you should look at the fire, cleansing yourself of bad and completely unnecessary thoughts and desires. And the desire that still remains must be released along with the smoke of the candle.
And it is precisely the desire that remains with you after a mental conversation with a candle that is the most desired in your life. This is how fire helps you crystallize in your consciousness what you really need.
After this, we must definitely eat a piece of cake, thereby making it clear to the Angel that we accept any of his decisions, because... We know that He sees all our paths and will choose exactly the one we need.
This wish has the same power as the wishes made for Christmas and New Year. Because they are supported by the magic of temporary transition (from year to year) and the power of faith in this desire. Does anyone doubt it?
- Mom, do you know what I wished for? - The bear licked the spoon and put it on the saucer.
- No, I do not know. And I don’t need to know this. This is your wish, isn't it?
Anya hugged her son and buried her nose in the top of his head. How she loves him...
And she will do everything to make him happy. At least everything in her power.
I am always glad to see you on the pages of the site
Birthday is a favorite holiday among residents of all countries. However, this was not always the case. Many scientists have looked into how the tradition of celebrating birthdays began and where it came from.
And yes, of course, a birthday cake with candles according to the number of years lived. Where is he from? The German medievalist and art historian Stefan Heidenreich conducted his research on this topic. The result of his research was the book “Geburtstag. Wie es kommt, dass wir uns selbst feiern” (“Birthday. How it happened that we honor ourselves”), which tells about the origins of the tradition in Europe. It was published by the Munich publishing house Hanser.
Feasts in Ancient Rome
There are people who perceive their birthday as nothing more than a calendar date. And the fact that they were born on this day is completely indifferent to them.
However, as Stefan Heidenreich discovered during his research, the tradition of celebrating birthdays already existed in ancient Rome. True, the life of a mere mortal was not valued there so highly as to organize a holiday in his honor. Initially, the ancient Romans - just like the ancient Greeks - solemnly celebrated not their own birthdays, but the birthdays of their gods. Over time, citizens began to enjoy the privilege of celebrating their birthdays, but only those who represented the nobility. Many guests were invited to the celebrations. Participants in the feast sang songs, recited poems, and gave gifts to the birthday boy. The tables, which were often placed right on the street, were laden with all kinds of dishes. The wine flowed like a river.
Appease the patron gods
The author of the oldest description of a birthday celebration that has reached our time is the ancient Roman poet Ovid. While in exile on the Black Sea coast, he describes the ceremony of the holiday, which he organized in honor of his wife, who, however, was not with him. As Ovid writes, he lit a fire on an altar entwined with flowers, burned incense on it and poured undiluted wine over the altar.
In ancient Rome, it was normal to celebrate the birthday of a loved one in this way, even in his absence. The main thing is to appease the defenders of the birthday boy, to pay honor to the patron gods, who, as it was believed, also participated in the solemn feast. According to ancient Roman mythology, men were protected from the influence of evil spirits by the guardian spirit Genius, and representatives of the fair sex were protected by the goddess of marriage, birth, family, motherhood and women, Juno.
Birthdays were celebrated in much the same way among the ancient Greeks. They, however, chanted Daimonia during the feast - a kind of inner voice. Moreover, the holiday was held not once a year, but once a month. They sat at the table for hours: they had philosophical conversations, but even more - they indulged in gluttony, Stefan Heidenreich notes in his book.
Blow out the candles and make a wish
With the spread of Christianity, the tradition of celebrating birthdays fell into oblivion. The fact is that Christianity treated man’s earthly life as a phenomenon of a sinful order, and therefore his birth was not considered necessary to celebrate. Early Christians viewed the world as a place of sorrow and believed that a truly joyful event was not birth, but a person’s departure to another world, farewell to sinful reality. Christmas is the only birthday-related holiday established by the Christian Church. No other birthdays were celebrated for centuries.
It was only during the years of the Reformation that the tradition of celebrating birthdays began to be revived. True, before 1600, few people knew the date of their birth. Most European countries began recording the birthdays and baptisms of citizens only in the 17th century. At first, only the nobility enjoyed the privilege of celebrating birthdays. But gradually this tradition began to spread to ordinary people.
If you believe the results of Stefan Heidenreich's research, the first region where representatives of literally all social strata received the right to organize celebrations on the occasion of their birthday was the territory of compact residence of the German ethnic group. Moreover, children's birthdays were especially widely celebrated. The child was woken up at dawn with songs and presented with a nut pie with candles, personifying a direct connection with the other world. The birthday boy blew out the candles and made a wish.
And later, immigrants from German-speaking countries spread this ritual throughout the world. So the wonderful tradition of blowing out candles on a birthday cake came from Germany.
Blowing out candles on a birthday cake is an old tradition that has taken root in many countries. We hate to spoil your holiday, but this thousand-year-old tradition is actually quite dangerous because it allows a lot of bacteria to spread on the surface of your birthday cake. According to a new study conducted by scientists from Clemson University in South Carolina, blowing out the candles on your birthday cake can actually increase the number of bacteria that settle on its glaze by 1,400 percent. 
What are the dangers of birthday cake?
In their rather succinctly titled study, “Bacterial Spread Associated with Blowing Out Birthday Cake Candles,” which was published in Food Research, the researchers made a mock-up of Styrofoam wrapped in tin foil with candles on top. 
Participants in the study first had to eat a slice of hot pizza to simulate the situation at a birthday party, where the birthday person eats some food before the birthday cake is placed in front of him. Any food stimulates the salivary glands and leads to the spread of bacteria in the mouth. Then the participants blew out the candles. 
The researchers then collected the foil samples and placed them in a bacteria-friendly environment. The experiment was repeated three times on separate days. It turned out that on average this tradition increases the number of bacteria on the cake by 15 times. 
It all depends on the birthday boy
However, it turns out that some people blowing out candles spread more bacteria than others. As everyday experience suggests, some people produce more saliva than others. For example, one of the experiment participants contributed to an increase in the number of bacteria by 120 times. 
“Some people can blow out the candles on a cake but still not transfer any bacteria. But there are also people who, for whatever reason, do carry a lot of bacteria,” said Professor Paul Dawson, who was the lead author of the study. 
Is it worth abandoning tradition?
While all of this is off-putting, don't worry too much if you've already been invited to a birthday party that involves the birthday boy blowing out the candles. As the study authors note, bacteria are part of everyday life. 
There may indeed be a few potentially harmful germs on your birthday cake, such as streptococcus or staphylococcus, but probably not in a quantity that could harm you. After all, people have probably been doing this for thousands of years, and "birthday cake fatalities" appear on death certificates very rarely.
“It’s not too much of a health risk,” Dawson added. “In fact, even if you blow on the candles 100,000 times, the likelihood of getting sick will still be minimal.” 
As you can see, blowing out candles will not have fatal consequences, but if you are looking for a reason to deny yourself sweets, you can use this one.
All holiday traditions have developed historically and are associated with some ritual from the past. In the modern world, blowing out candles on a cake has also been customary for a very long time and in many countries around the world.
In Germany, since the 18th century, candles were placed in the cake for every child's birthday, one more than the age of the birthday boy. An extra candle symbolized another year that the child would successfully live.
The candles burned all day and were changed, and the child made a wish and blew them out before going to bed. It was believed that the smoke that rose from the candles went straight to God, who would grant the child's wish. In those days, no one thought about whether it was possible to blow out candles on a cake, and what harm it could do.
Why you can't actually blow out candles
However, not so long ago, scientists conducted the following experiment:
Covered a piece of foam plastic with chocolate icing.
They installed a number of candles on it.
They offered to blow out the candles for those participating in the experiment.
As a result of the study, it turned out that when a person blows out candles, he draws a lot of air into his lungs, and then forcefully exhales it along with his bacteria onto the entire surface of the treat.
Then the icing was examined for the presence of bacteria, and it was found that the number of microorganisms on the cake model was almost 15 times greater than before blowing. In one case, pathogenic microbes increased their numbers by 121,000%. This result was obtained due to the fact that one of the participants in the experiment suffered from a viral infection.
You can't blow out candles if the birthday person is sick.
We all know very well what happens at an ordinary holiday. After the traditional blowing out of the candles, the cake is cut into pieces and distributed to the guests, who happily eat the contaminated delicacy. So it turns out that blowing out candles is not a safe tradition at all.
Therefore, keep in mind whether you can blow out the candles on the cake or not, of course, it’s up to you to decide. However, if you have small children whose immune systems have not yet strengthened, then it’s definitely not worth risking their health, especially when the birthday boy has obvious signs of illness and blows out the candles.
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