Figure 1.--Millions of American children have had their photographs take at their birthday parties. This was a party for a 7-year old boy in 1950. |
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The birthday party is today the most important day of the year for most American children, equalled only by Christmas. The same is true for children throughout Europe. We assume that birthdays parties are also held in many other countries around the world, but have few details. We are not sure when birthday parties first became major events for children. We suspect that it is one of the institutions that became established during the Victorian age as the modern concept of childhood began to form. I'm not sure about the precise chronology of birthday paries. I know they were a well established convention by the time I started having mine in the 1940s. The centerpiece in an American birthday part one was a bithday cake and blowing out the candles. This is not today as importat as it once was. Children used to dress up for their birthday parties, although this varied from country to country. Modern birthday parties are decidely casual events. We have begun to collect birthday accounts, but have not had much suucess. We note an American birthday party in 1917. We also note the American birthday part seen here in the 1950s (figure 1).
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