Birthday candles.
I was generally blog hopping and I stumbled upon vinesh's blog! I was reading one of his archives and the topic that caught my attention was the one on B'day candles.
Typically the ritual has been , have a B'day cake and lite, if possible, # of candles and let the kid make a wish and "BLOW" off the candles and then ..sing the famous "Happy B'day" song and clap hands! The kid is by now all smiles and happy :)
R's bro's wife (my co-sister) was always against the candle blowing scene during B'days. Its not like she would not have the candles there on the cake , she would have them there...everybody sings and then she would neatly pull them off the cake and put off the fire , by not blowing and then the kid cuts the cake. The kid has even asked her that she wants to blow the candle, but she would simply turn back and tell her -"No, we dont do that." Kid feels bad, but soon is happy when a piece of cake is given to her and all is forgotten.
That used to always make me wonder why she is so particular about not blowing the candles. Well, naturally I was more bothered about the kid's feelings.
I asked her couple of times, about this and she would tell me that she did not like the concept of blowing off "the lights" which we light them up in the first place. She would in-return question me , when we consider "bringing in light" as something auspicious and good as light chases darkness away then, why, when we are celebrating a birth we put them off?
Ok I did not have an answer then and even now :D
What is the reason behind blowing off candles and why is it done on "B'days"?
Typically the ritual has been , have a B'day cake and lite, if possible, # of candles and let the kid make a wish and "BLOW" off the candles and then ..sing the famous "Happy B'day" song and clap hands! The kid is by now all smiles and happy :)
R's bro's wife (my co-sister) was always against the candle blowing scene during B'days. Its not like she would not have the candles there on the cake , she would have them there...everybody sings and then she would neatly pull them off the cake and put off the fire , by not blowing and then the kid cuts the cake. The kid has even asked her that she wants to blow the candle, but she would simply turn back and tell her -"No, we dont do that." Kid feels bad, but soon is happy when a piece of cake is given to her and all is forgotten.
That used to always make me wonder why she is so particular about not blowing the candles. Well, naturally I was more bothered about the kid's feelings.
I asked her couple of times, about this and she would tell me that she did not like the concept of blowing off "the lights" which we light them up in the first place. She would in-return question me , when we consider "bringing in light" as something auspicious and good as light chases darkness away then, why, when we are celebrating a birth we put them off?
Ok I did not have an answer then and even now :D
What is the reason behind blowing off candles and why is it done on "B'days"?
posted by madsies at 7:40 AM
11 Comments:
hmm interesting thought!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_cake
even wiki doesnt hav a gr8 explanation abt it!! will try n let u knw!!
each candle represents the year that we have passed . With the blowing of the candles, we putoff all the past good and bad we have gone thro' in the past and we move forward to the next year...
Interesting question...!
I liked Ashok's explanation...
I hv a friend here who behaves like ur co-sis..she dosent like blowing out candles too....
Interesting Q! did some googling.... here are some links.....
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/TLresources/units/Byrnes-celebrations/bday.html
http://www.cyberkisses.com/Birthday/birth-traditions.html
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=582792
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=953824
you may get some idea....
Cheers!
:)
A different question...
@KC - yea! It has always made me think till...
@Ashok - I like that explanation..good one!
@Shilpa - Guess what, my co-sis not only does like to blow off B'day candles but she jsut does nto blow off any light! Even if i lite something up just for ambience and then if I blow it off she would get bugged :( kashta kaalam!
Vishnu- Thanks for sharing the links :)
Vanathi- yea...such questions do make me think :( And thanks for stopping by :)
Ah, I was about to offer a part of Ashok's explanation. But he got here first :-)!
On a more serious note, maybe blowing off the candles is also a symbolic gesture meaning that you are never going to get those years of your life back!!
*swoon* that was so philosophical, I will need some time to digest this post and get back to you! :-))
I dont know why we blow the candles..But I knw why we throw them...
well.......when u have the Cake..why eat the candles:P
Madsies,
Whats with so many bday posts in blogdom ;)
Interesting question. Dont know the answer though? :(
They believe that candles have mystic qualities and by blowing candles, they get their future predictions. If they are blown off at one breath, then its a good omen,etc. But here we believe that blowing off the flame means we blow off our wealth. It is really strange how we differ.
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