Children's birthday
The child's birthday is a common throughout the world practice , where the birth of children is celebrated with a feast.
Children's birthdays in Europe
Origins
Celebrating birthdays goes back at least to ancient times. It is not known when this started. It is clear, however, that a calendar system was a prerequisite for such a recurring day to be safe at all. The calendar system also had to be accessible to the general population and not just a few initiated priests. The Romans held exuberant birthday parties. In the Middle Ages the custom was lost and at most the Lord was celebrated. For some time the Christian Church even had difficulties with Christmas , the celebration of the birth of Jesus. In the Middle Ages, the normal population in Central Europe was often not even aware of their own birthday. In Germany, birthday celebrations only came back with the Reformation. The discovery of the individual seems to have been important. You could celebrate yourself. The beginnings of children's birthdays in Germany are probably the so-called children's wreaths, which were set up at the beginning of the 18th century in the nobility and the bourgeois upper class. With these celebrations, children should be introduced to appropriate behavior, forms of communication and duties of representation towards guests. In the 19th century, the bourgeoisie took over the birthday celebrations. The birthday cake has been an integral part of the festive birthday table since around the middle of the 19th century. The custom already existed in rural areas around 1800. Maids who went to work from the country to the cities and took the birthday cake common at the time, the cup cake, with them to their new jobs, ensured that it was spread across the country.
The tradition of birthday candles emerged parallel to cakes, probably for the reason that children could experience the meaning of a new year of life, since, in contrast to other drastic experiences such as the loss of milk teeth or school enrollment , the birthday does not come with tangible things or objects that can be sensually experienced connected is. As early as 1775, a fictional story in the magazine Der Kinderfreund , published by Christian Felix Weisse , the founder of German children's and youth literature , said:
The door opened and the glow of the lights announced a small blindfold, which his siblings accompanied by his mother, presented to him in a cake with nine lights, made according to the number of his years.
Invitations and gifts
Friends and classmates, occasionally educators and relatives, are invited . The invitees usually bring gifts . In German-speaking countries it is sometimes customary to give the guests a small present after the party, usually a small bag of sweets .
to eat and drink
A birthday cake is part of a children's birthday party . There are candles on it that indicate the age of the birthday child and that the child must blow out when celebrating.
Birthday songs
The guests usually sing a serenade to the birthday child, such as Happy Birthday , high he / she should live ( high she / he should live, high she / he should live, three times high! ) Or How nice that you were born… .
Other countries have their own songs. In Poland one sings z. B. “Sto lat, sto lat” ( He / she should live a hundred years ). In Hungary , the children's song (originally not a birthday song) Ég a gyertya, ég (The candle is burning) and a birthday song by an actress and UNICEF ambassador , Judit Halász , who are very famous in Hungary , are popular under the title Boldog születésnapot ( Happy Birthday ) . In Persia they sing Tawalodet mobarak, bia shama ro fut kon ta sad sal zende bashi . It means happy birthday, blow out the candles so that you may live another 100 years .
Games
Various children's games are organized on a children's birthday party . Popular in Germany and Austria are pot hitting , sack races , egg running , trips to Jerusalem , blind cows , flour cutting or poor black cat ; among school children also silent mail , tea kettles and charades . Often times, the winner of a game will receive a candy or toy as a prize. Sometimes a scavenger hunt or a treasure hunt is organized, in which the children have different stations with tasks and games and at the end have to find something (usually a "treasure chest" with sweets). Sports competitions are also held at some birthday parties. Overnight parties with a preceding night hike and theme parties are also popular .
The demands on a successful children's party are very different: They range from the simple provision of play space and play opportunities for children to play freely, to the organization of play processes by adults, to the joint creative implementation of their own play ideas, the discovery of natural play materials, the development of Game variants and inventing your own game forms and rules.
Themed festivals
Birthdays are often given a specific theme, such as an Indian, ghost, princess, wizard or witch festival. Appropriate disguise is encouraged, the children are made up according to the theme, the cake is decorated accordingly. During the festival, handicrafts related to the topic will be made and games will be played.
Children's birthdays in other parts of the world
Mexico
In Mexico it is common to make a so-called piñata . This paper mache ball hangs from the ceiling and guests can smash it blindfolded. There are sweets inside. This custom also applies to other festivals in Mexico.
United States
In the United States, children's birthday parties are often not carried out at home, but at agencies that can offer a special frame and a subject for children's parties. In this case, the whole day care group or school class is usually invited. Birthday parties take place in the swimming pool, at the bowling alley or in play and amusement facilities. Often there are also celebrations in the premises of a nature or cultural center or in the branch of a fast food chain. Many construction and hobby markets also offer handicraft parties. Older children, especially girls, occasionally prefer a slumber party where the invited children stay overnight.
The birthday games common in Germany are largely unknown in the United States. Conversely, most of the games that are played on American children's birthdays - e. B. the originally Mexican piñata hitting - unusual in Germany. Overall, however, birthday games are less widespread in the USA than in Germany.
An indispensable part of every American children's birthday party, on the other hand, is an oversized cream, buttercream or ice cream cake by German standards that is colorfully decorated and bears the words "Happy Birthday (first name of the child) ". Theme cakes are particularly popular with American children. B. with cartoon characters from current movies, which are decorated to order in many supermarkets. Making your own birthday cakes is hardly common. Before the child blows out the candles attached to the cake (which correspond to the number of years of his life) to applause, the Happy Birthday serenade is sung. Preschoolers usually also put emphasis on birthday hats and blowouts ( blowouts ).
Since Americans do not perceive cake as a snack , but as a dessert, it is common for a plate pizza to be served immediately before the cake . Also, tortilla chips , popcorn and the like is often served.
Unlike in Germany, birthday gifts are not unpacked immediately after they are handed over, but are collected on a table and the birthday child only unpacks them shortly before the end of the party. Especially with younger children (under eight years of age) it is common for all invited children to receive a bag with sweets or small toys ( goody bag ) when they say goodbye .
Children's birthday parties in the USA usually last precisely two hours in order to give the parents, who drive the little guests to the party and pick them up again later, a clear orientation.
It is also customary to celebrate children's birthdays in day care centers and schools. Younger children are allowed to wear a crown or something similar on their special day. The birthday child's parents bring pastries, usually cupcakes , because they are easy to serve. Elementary school teachers teaching novice writers like to use a child's birthday as an opportunity to have the rest of the students write personal messages to the birthday child. On the other hand, children do not receive birthday presents at school.
Rejection
Children of Jehovah's Witnesses decline invitations to children's birthdays for religious reasons, do not congratulate and also do not celebrate their own birthday. They would rather wish all the best for the new phase of life. “Happy birthday” is not said. However, they do organize children's parties on other occasions.
Problems and opportunities
Many parents shy away from making their child's birthday a bigger celebration. The game educators Warwitz and Rudolf raise a number of fears:
Children's birthdays have sometimes become a prestige event, where parents try to outdo each other with more spectacular events . Others feel organizationally or financially overwhelmed by their own design, especially when there is a tendency to visit cinemas and expensive amusement parks . Still others say the children need the hire of commercial animators, magicians, or clowns. There is a risk that children's birthdays will turn into consumer events and pure entertainment afternoons that are not very valuable and that some parents do not feel up to.
The game teachers encourage you to turn the problems into opportunities and recommend z. For example, to free children's parties from the priority of costs, for example by setting a binding upper limit for guest gifts that is tolerable for everyone or by completely dispensing with them. They advise the children to organize the festival more themselves. This can also consist in the fact that each child should bring a favorite game or a favorite toy (instead of a gift, if applicable), which they can bring closer to the others. In this way, there is a great opportunity to also invite migrant children to learn from their forms of play and perhaps to be inspired by it. Such a change in the fixed thought counteracts the widespread consumer climate in the area of play, arouses creativity, promotes social ties and the understanding of other cultures, and takes real play needs of children into account.
literature
- Christiane Binder: Games and festivals in Papua New Guinea , Scientific State Examination Work GHS, Karlsruhe 1997
- Regine Falkenberg (Ed.): Children's birthday. A custom is exhibited . (= Writings of the Museum für Deutsche Volkskunde Berlin; Vol. 11). Museum for German Folklore , Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88609-228-3
- Silke Jensch: Nature as an occasion to play, play space and play partner . Scientific state examination work GHS. Karlsruhe 2001
- Erika Szegedi: Games of other times and peoples - further developed with children , Scientific State Examination Work GHS, Karlsruhe 1998
- Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Children's birthday . In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and ideas for play , 4th edition, Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Regine Falkenberg (ed.): Birthday party. A custom is exhibited . (= Writings of the Museum für Deutsche Volkskunde Berlin, Volume 11). Berlin 1984
- ↑ The birthday in Roman antiquity. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Alexander Demandt: A birthday party is idolatry. Die Welt, December 24, 2004, accessed on February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Andreas Frey: Cultural history of the birthday: From the courage to celebrate yourself. FAZ, April 22, 2018, accessed on February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Why do we celebrate birthdays. Labyrinth of Legends, accessed February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Andreas Frey: Cultural history of the birthday: From the courage to celebrate yourself. FAZ, April 22, 2018, accessed on February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Katja Thimm: Why we celebrate our birthday. (html) Spiegel, March 29, 2018, accessed February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ http://www.dielinde-ev.de/Lebenslauf/kindheit.htm ( Memento from March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, A. Rudolf: Children's birthday . In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5
- ↑ Silke Jensch: Nature as an occasion to play, play space and play partner . Scientific state examination work GHS, Karlsruhe 2001
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Children's birthday . In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas , 4th edition, Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, p. 167
- ↑ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Playing to meet other peoples . In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and ideas for games , 4th edition, Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 118–125
- ↑ Erika Szegedi: Games of other times and peoples - further developed with children , Wissenschaftliche Staatsexamensarbeit GHS, Karlsruhe 1998
- ^ Christiane Binder: Games and festivals in Papua New Guinea , Scientific State Examination Work GHS, Karlsruhe 1997