Birthday Celebrations from Around the World

In 2008 celebrate your birthday the way your ancestors did!

Lithuania - In Lithunia, a garland is hung around the entire door of the home of the birthday person. The birthday person sits in a decorated chair and family members lift them up to three times.

Norway - Norwegian children dance in front of their class with a friend while the rest of the students sing a happy birthday song. Norway's national flag is also displayed outside the home of a birthday person. On the birthdays of important people, the streets in Norway are decorated with flags.

Russia - Instead of a birthday cake, many Russian child receive a birthday pie with a birthday greeting carved into the crust. Children are given gifts by their teachers. Children usually play a game that features a clothesline and each guest gets to cut down a prize to take home. They have a birthday party either on their birthday or or on the weekend.

Australia - The Australian children have a special dish on their birthdays called "Fairy Bread". This is a is buttered bread covered with tiny, sprinkles known as "hundreds and thousands". In Australia too the handing over of the is symbolical of coming off age. This happens when someone turns twenty-one.

Muslim Communities - In Muslim cultures people thank Allah following the birth of a child by distributing gifts among the poor. When the child is about a week old, he is tonsured and his family donates an amount of silver, often equal too, or even more than the weight of the child's hair. Family and friends get together over a grand feast.

Argentina - Argentinian children receives a pull on the earlobe for each year of their birthday. When girls turn 15 they have a huge party and dance the waltz with their father and other boys.

Equador - In Equador when a girl turns 15, there is a great celebration, She wears a pink dress and her father puts on the birthday girl's first pair of high heels and dances the waltz with her. 14 maids and 14 boys also dance the waltz.

Peru - In Peru, guests at a birthday party receives two kinds of favors which are called "recordatorio". This means souvenir. While the first favor is a goody box or a bag, the second is a pin made in honor of the event. At these parties children almost always receive fancy paper hats.