Why Do We Celebrate Birthdays?

Annual celebrations and commemorations came about with the invention of the calendar. Not much is known about the first birthday celebrations in history, in part because they are very ancient. The earliest ones we know about were for nobles, in which the celebration played a performative social function that celebrated the noble as a leader. The use of the date of birth for such celebrations was somewhat arbitrary; other dates, such as the date of coronation or the annual festival of a patron deity, were common as well.

The tradition of celebrating everyone’s birthday is fairly recent. It coincided with several socioeconomic trends in the 19th and 20th centuries that saw the rise of consumerism and increased investment in the upbringing of children—and, thus, the annual celebration of their lives through the giving of gifts.