The tradition of celebrating birthdays is not as old as time, in fact the most infamous song “happy birthday” is only ~100 years old. Once it was only for gods, then nobles, then the rich, and then the common folk. How did these traditions come about?
The first birthday celebration points back to 3000 BCE in Egypt where they celebrated a pharaoh becoming a god on a specific date. Like many Egyptian traditions, the Greeks followed suit and started celebrating their gods with offerings and rituals. With the rise of Christianity, this tradition was seen as paganism and evil (even though Christmas is a Christian holiday where they celebrated Jesus’s birth). Birthdays have deeply religious roots, with the first birthday celebration without religion involved was in Rome, with only men having their birthdays celebrated.
But how did the traditional cake and parties come about? In Greece they offered moon-shaped cakes to the lunar goddess Artemis, adorned with candles that burned like the stars. Gift-giving started in Rome with competitions of who can give the best gift to the man being celebrated. These traditions were solidified in the 1800s with Germany celebrating children with cake and candles the number of how old they are, plus one to signify the new year of growth.
The traditions of birthdays had almost died out in America due to the prices of flour and the ideology that children are only good for working. Only the rich could afford to celebrate. However, due to the industrial revolution prices of goods such as flour greatly decreased, making it more available to the public to bake. After the industrial revolution there was a shift in the way children were treated, as families had less and valued them more as family instead of workers.
For more information on the history of birthdays:
https://www.rebounderz.com/the-history-of-birthdays/
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/11/history-birthday-celebrations/620585/
