Let Them Eat Cake

I am lucky for many reasons, not the least of which is my birthday.  It's July 3rd.  Not on the 4th.  That means I have 2 full days of celebration, and if I make the mistake of too much exuberance on my birthday, I have the nation's birthday to recover.  But I try hard not to overdo it.  (anymore . . . )

Although not everyone I wanted to attend my birthday party could be there, we still had a great time.  In lieu of gifts, people donated money to charity.  And we sat and laughed and told stories and met new people and got to catch up with old friends.  And we ate.  And for this year's birthday, we also wore mustaches. 

Since we're talking about birthday's, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss cake.  Birthday cake seems to be a very old tradition.  Ancient Grecians would bake small honey cakes in the shape of crescent moons as offerings to the temples of Artemis.  Romans seemed to like the idea of cakes and used them to celebrate certain holidays including the birthdays of important people.  Apparently this caught on in the proletariat, because after a number of generations and the spread of Christianity, common folk would bake cakes for the Baby Jesus at Christmas.  And from there, it was probably a small step to start celebrating all birthdays with cakes.  They are relatively cheap to make, can be shared by many people, and can be customized for the honoree.  I recognize that this is a very Western Europen cum American sensibility, but that's who I am. 

We don't all celebrate with cake.  The earliest documented birthday parties come to us from ancient Persia.  The Greek historian Herodotus wrote of the people of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, "Of all the days in the year, the one which they celebrate most is their birthday. It is customary to have the board furnished on that day with an ampler supply than common... They eat little solid food but an abundance of dessert, which is set on table a few dishes at a time... They are very fond of wine."  In China, guests bring colored eggs to be displayed before being eaten by the birthday partiers. Throughout Mexico and some other Latino areas, breaking open piñatas marks the focal point of any good birthday fiesta (and has foddered countless clips to be aired on Americas Funniest Home Videos).

For those of us who do celebrate birthdays with cake, we don't associate cake with ALL birthdays.  In the U.S., we've left off cake for Christmas and replaced it with cookies and candy.  Perhaps with the broad availability of different foods in America, it's easy for us to stray from our Western historic roots.  Or maybe we have incorporated so many other cultures into ours that we have created something quintessentially American.  As American as apple pie.  We don't think of cake for the Independence Day celebrations--we go for pie.  Hhmmm.  Interesting.  And some people I know don't really like cake at all.  I can't really understand that myself, but to each their own. 

Today, because it's my birthday and my blog, instead of giving you a recipie or two, I ask you for a gift:  Please offer all of us a brief story about how you celebrate your birthday, and if you have a celebration cake (or pie, or seaweed soup, or whatever) please post it in the comments! 

Happy 41st Birthday to me and Happy 234th Birthday, America!