HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It may come as a surprise, but the fact is that celebrating birthdays is a relatively new tradition for anyone but kings and queens.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS. The first people known to celebrate birthdays were the ancient Egyptians – starting around 3000 B.C. But only the queen and male members of the royal family were honored. No one even bothered recording anyone else’s birth dates.

• The ancient Greeks expanded the concept a little: they celebrated the birthdays of all adult males…and kept on celebrating, even after a man had died. Women’s and children’s birthdays were considered too unimportant to observe.

• The Greeks also introduced birthday cakes (which they got from the Persians) and birthday candles (which may have honored Artemis, goddess of the moon, because they symbolized moonlight).

• It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that German peasants became the first to celebrate the birthdays of everyone in the family. Children’s birthday celebrations were especially important. Called Kinderfestes, they were the forerunner to our toddler birthday parties.

THE BIRTHDAY SONG. Mildred and Patty Smith Hill, two sisters from Louisville, Kentucky, published a song called “Good Morning to All” in a kindergarten songbook in 1893. They wrote it as a “welcoming” song, to be sung to young students at the beginning of each school day.

In 1924, a songbook editor changed the lyrics to “Happy Birthday to You” and published it without the Hill sisters’ permission. The new lyrics made it a popular tune, but the Hill family took no action…until the song appeared in a Broadway play in 1933. Then Jessica Hill (a third sister) sued for copyright infringement. She won, but most singers stopped using the song rather than pay the royalty fee. In one play called Happy Birthday, for example, actress Helen Hayes spoke the words to avoid paying it.

Today, whenever “Happy Birthday” is sung commercially, a royalty still must be paid to the Hills.

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