Why do we cut cake and blow candles on birthdays?

All birthday ceremonies have a common ritual of blowing out candles and cutting a cake. No birthday is complete without a birthday cake and this ritual is one thing that is common across the globe. People of all countries and ethnicities follow more or less the same pattern of blowing out candles, cutting the cake and singing the happy birthday song. But do you know how this ritual originated? Read on the know about the tradition of birthday cake and why do we blow out candles on birthdays. (image credits- istock)

According to legends, in the Roman culture, cakes were served to guests during special occasions like weddings. Initially, these cakes were made in flat circular shapes with ingredients like flour, honey and nuts.

During the 15th century AD, the German bakeries introduced single-layered cakes for birthday celebrations in the market. This banished the myth that a cake can only be cut at weddings and led to the creation of the tradition of cutting a cake on birthdays.

Cakes went through a lot of changes and modern-day cakes were only introduced later in the 17th century. These cakes were coated with cream, decorated with beautiful icing and were also available in different shapes.

Later in the middle of the 19th century, even the Western European Countries started cutting cakes on birthdays and in no time the tradition spread all across the globe. (image credits- istock)

There are a number of ancient theories that explain the origin of blowing candles on birthdays. The first one is the Greek theory, which says that the tradition of blowing candles on birthdays is connected to the ancient practice of lighting the candles in order to worship the birth of the Goddess Artemis.

According to another theory, the tradition of blowing candles originated in Switzerland in the year 1881. The Swiss middles class followed a number of superstitions back in the days and the number of candles on the cake corresponded to the age of the person. The birthday boy/girl was then asked to blow out each candle one by one.

Another theory comes from the Pagans who said that the birthday candles had a symbolic power. It was believed in earlier times that bad spirits visit people on their birthdays and in order to protect the birthday person, candles were lit and he/she was surrounded by the friends and family and therefore, was shielded from the evil spirits. (image credits- istock)

Another important ritual of cake cutting is singing the famous ‘Happy Birthday’ song with it. The tradition of singing this song to the birthday boy/girl first started in the English-speaking countries. Soon, the song got so popular that it got translated into more than 18 languages, with the same classic tone. (image credits- istock)

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