Birthdays are Strange

Birthdays are strange. I mean, think about it. It’s the one day of the year where depending on your age and your situation in life, the personal acceptance will be completely different.

For example, when we were children, we couldn’t wait to celebrate our birthday. Mostly because it meant received presents and having some sort of party with friends and/or family. Then, as we entered our teenage years, we yearned to become the age where we could be treated more like adults. As we entered our our twenties, we anxiously awaited the opportunity to actually become an adult. And on and on and on…

But as people reach let’s say a more mature age, we begin looking at birthdays a little bit differently. Some say it’s just another day. Others say that it’s another day closer to retirement. Still others lament that it’s another step toward the last day on earth. No matter how you look at it, birthdays are strange.

Here are some other strange facts about birthdays:

• The history of birthday observance can also be traced back to before the rise of Christianity. In pagan culture, it was believed evil spirits visited people on their birthdays. To protect the  birthday person from evil, people used to surround him and make merry. They would make a lot of noise to scare away the evil spirits.
• The song “Good Morning to You” was written by Mildred Hill and Dr. Patty hill in 1893, for Kindergarten schools. Patty Hill later changed the lyrics to “Happy Birthday” after it gained in popularity.
• In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a popular 21st birthday present was to have all your teeth removed and replaced with a set of dentures – the idea was it would prevent the expense of dental treatment later in life.
• The most common birth date of the year is 5th of October which falls 9 months after the New Year’s Eve.
• Since your last birthday 31,536,000 seconds have passed.
• In the past year your hair will most likely have grown 4.7 inches and your nail about 1.5 inches.
• Your heart beats at a rate of around of 72 to 80 beats per minute – since your last birthday it will have beat about 42,075,900 times.
• You breath at a rate of about 20 breaths per minute so, since your last birthday you have taken approximately 10,512,000 breaths.
• The average garden snail moves at around 0.03 mph. If one set out on your last birthday, and walked non-stop it would have traveled 263 miles. If you walked this distance non-stop you would complete it in around three days.
• Since your last birthday you will have had about 1,460 dreams.
• World population has grown by around 76,570,430 since your last birthday. In the time it takes you to read this another five babies will have been born.
• During the past year there have been more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world.
• The Earth is zooming around the sun at around 66,780 miles per hour! Since your last birthday the Earth has completed one journey around the sun traveling about 584,337,600 miles.
• William Shakespeare’s died on his 52nd birthday: 23 April 1616. (Should I be concerned?)
• The average number of people celebrating a birthday today is 15 million.

So to all of my fellow birthday buddies today, I wish you a strange yet Happy Birthday. And always remember the words of that old English proverb: The older the fiddler, the sweeter the tune!