Number 23 for first birthday

Originally, as I understand it, the word birthday meant the day of one's birth. It was a one-off event. I don't want to quarrel with the idea of extending this to cover anniversaries of one's birth. I'm comfortable saying that I've had forty birthdays, or thereabouts. I'm not sure how far back the concept of celebrating the anniversary of one's birth goes, but it at least pre-dates Moses Genesis , and therefore long pre-dates the English word birthday. This isn't a question about how that custom arose, but about the way we use the English word birthday and whether it makes sense.

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Does it refer to the day of one's birth, or an anniversary, or both? Convention seems to dictate that my son's first birthday is when he's a year old; his second birthday will be when he's made it through another year; and so on. Now this is odd: if his first birthday is in a year's time, what's become of the day of his birth? Is this now considered not to be a birthday at all?

I'd have expected him to become a year old on his second birthday, and so on. Is this a bit weird, or what? Has it just happened so that the cardinals four years old line up with the ordinals fourth birthday? I can't speak to the history of the usage, but basically, yes, "birthday" means the anniversary of your birth, not the original day of the event. People rarely refer to the day someone was born as his "birthday".

Rather, we call that "the day he was born". If you want to know the date someone was born, including the year, you don't ask, "When was your birthday? When someone who is designing a form wants to know the day and year you were born, they don't label the space "Birthday", they label it "Date of birth".

Given that, it makes sense to call the day one year after a person was born his "first birthday", a year later is his "second birthday", etc. Just like we say that one year after you are married is your "first anniversary", etc. As I say, I don't know the history. I don't know if English speakers ever called the day that someone was born his "birthday".

Whether it started out that way and the meaning has shifted, or whether "birthday" has always meant the anniversary of one's birth, I don't know. So maybe that means it was always an anniversary.

Like C arrays , laws of thermodynamics , and the days of March , birthdays are zero-indexed. You can understand this if you are familiar with the concept of abstraction - what is a day if not a date without a year Independence Day, Labour Day, etc? Independence Day , Labour Day , etc. It makes sense to use birthdate for the day your son was born and birthday for that day in whichever year - which coincide with the celebrations including the birthdate. There is no reason to think that birthday is shortened from anything. There are several phrases with day which mean "anniversary" or "commemoration" - name day , saint's day , Independence Day.

Birth day as a phrase fits in to this pattern. The first meaning given for birthday in the OED is "the day on which anyone is born" with transferred and figurative meanings , and it is not marked as obsolete. But the latest example given is from The second meaning is the familiar one of "The anniversary or annual observance of the day of birth of any one", with the first example around the year , and the first securely dated example from So in answer to the question, I don't think there's anything odd about the numbering: the usual meaning of word is the anniversary.

We do use the phrase "birth day" to mean the day of your actual birth. But birthdays in Brazil, like Russia, include pulling on the ears for good luck. They also decorate their homes with brightly-coloured paper flowers and banners for the festivities.

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And most people have a Birthday Calendar that, interestingly, they keep by the toilet! Parents usually give their children a key made of gold, silver, or aluminium, to symbolise unlocking the future and all it has to offer. This is a celebration on the feast day of the saint the person is named after! They traditionally celebrate with cake coated in green marzipan, and presents are wrapped in the colours of the Swedish flag: blue and gold.

They have a huge love for their flag, and a miniature flagpole by your birthday cake or on your birthday cake is a must.

They also make great fun with the Danish birthday song. The birthday boy or girl gets to choose which instruments the singers will pretend to play while singing! Like air-guitar, except nearly a full band or orchestra. For children in school, the birthday child will dance in front of the class while the others sing the Norwegian birthday song. The Finnish also celebrate Name Day, where a different name is assigned to each day of the year. The day that your name is assigned to, you get to celebrate!

Prince Louis Shines in First Birthday Portraits Taken By Duchess Kate

They have four big birthday milestones: 1st birthday, 7th, 18th for girls , and 21st for boys. Seventh birthdays are celebrated as the age which kids make the first steps towards adulthood. This is the age where kids are held more accountable for their actions and start primary school. A birthday usually starts with a blessing at a temple, abundant prayers, and a mixture of rice and turmeric paste anointed on the forehead.

Then the day's followed with more Western traditions such as the Happy Birthday song and cake cutting. Birthday celebrations are not very common in Bangladesh. But when a baby is born, sweets are given out amongst family and friends to celebrate. They also hold a small celebration for the naming ceremony. In the Telugu-speaking region of Andhra Pradesh, girls will often decorate their hair for their birthday. Many South Indians follow the Malayalam calendar instead. This system calculates their birthdays based on astrology.

So many times, their birthdays aren't celebrated on their day of birth, but their astrological birthday. But most celebrations are like those in Western culture. In Egypt, some people celebrate the birth of the baby by dipping the child in the Nile river, a ceremony stemming from Pharaonic times. On the seventh day after birth, they hold a celebration called subu and celebrate with many flowers, fruit, and rituals for good luck. Although Esperanto is an artificially-constructed language, it does have one birthday tie: an Esperanto holiday, Zamenhof's Birthday. In fact, the very first official photos of Louis ever released were also taken by Mom, including one of him in the arms of his big sister, 3-year-old Princess Charlotte.

New Photos Of Prince Louis Released To Celebrate First Birthday

It was the duchess who took Charlotte's first official pics , too, as she sat in the lap of the nowyear-old Prince George. But the new photos put the spotlight directly on their little brother and his sweet smile. And if that smile looks familiar, it may not be because of his own past pics. As we couldn't help but notice last fall, during grandpa Prince Charles' 70th birthday celebration, the youngest member of the Cambridge clan bears a striking resemblance to one of his parents.

His mother may often be found behind the camera these days, but when Louis is in front of the lens, you can still see her in his face.