From ancient rulers to modern traditions: Fascinating evolution of birthday celebrations

Birthdays: a day of celebration, cake, and well-wishes. But where did this tradition come from? While many believe the ancient Egyptians were the first to mark the occasion, the true origins may surprise you. 

Proceeding from a recent article, Live Science reveals that the earliest evidence of birthday celebrations comes from economic records of Lagash, a significant city in ancient Sumer, located in what is now southern Mesopotamia, the cradle of the world's first civilization, explained Vladimir Emelianov, a historian at St. Petersburg University in Russia.

Emelianov has studied cuneiform tablets from the third millennium B.C., during the rule of King Lugalanda (2384-2378 B.C.), which reference holidays commemorating the births of the king's children. These elite births, according to the records, were marked by animal sacrifices that were shared between the living and their ancestors.

"When Lugalanda was removed from power, the recording of birthdays also ended," Emelianov stated. "As far as I know, there was nothing like this in Egypt or ancient Asia Minor [modern-day Türkiye]."

The idea that Egyptians celebrated birthdays likely stems from Genesis 40:20, which mentions, "And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants." However, according to Emelianov, birthday feasts for pharaohs are not historically recorded until the Ptolemaic era (305 to 30 B.C.).

Another early mention of birthdays comes from the Greek historian Herodotus. In the fifth century B.C., Herodotus wrote about Persian customs in his work "Histories," noting that "of all days, their wont is to honor most that on which they were born, each one: on this, they think it right to set out a feast more liberal than on other days." Both the rich and the poor held these birthday celebrations, where they prepared an abundance of meat and filled their tables with plenty of desserts.

This observation about the Persians implies that "for a Greek of the High Classical period, celebrating a birthday was deemed unusual," Emelianov noted in a 2017 study published in the Bulletin of St. Petersburg University Oriental and African Studies. During the fifth to third centuries B.C., people were more focused on casting their newborn's horoscope to predict the type of life the child would lead.

Emelianov has not pinpointed exactly when annual birthday celebrations began. The tradition could have originated with the Sumerian kings 4,000 years ago or with the Persians in the fifth century B.C., he suggested. These celebrations might have even taken place before humans began recording them.

However, by the later years of the Roman Republic (509 to 27 B.C.), celebrating an individual's birthday had become common. Emelianov pointed to a character's birthday celebration in the Latin comedic play Pseudolus, first performed in 191 B.C., and to a letter from the Roman orator Cicero discussing his daughter's birthday celebration in 50 B.C. In the first century A.D., a Roman woman even wrote a letter inviting her friend to her birthday party at the fort of Vindolanda in England.

"Only one thing can be established with certainty — the day of birth is something that clearly sets one person apart from the other," Emelianov concluded. As ancient societies began focusing more on individuals than the community, he said, "one's birthday becomes a landmark of personal existence and a cornerstone of individual success."

So, it is perhaps not surprising that, similar to the Ptolemaic pharaohs, later kings and rulers used birthday celebrations to rally political support. In 1748, Great Britain initiated an annual tradition of celebrating the sovereign’s birthday. During the American Revolution, colonists held mock funerals and disabled British cannons to prevent celebrating King George III. George Washington's birthday was also celebrated during the war, with a band serenading him at Valley Forge in 1778, likely inspired by the British custom. By the time Washington became president, his birthday had become a popular national event, but it wasn’t until 1879 that February 22 was officially recognized as a US holiday.

By Naila Huseynova