How many of you feel that birthdays are over rated?

akd_dka

I mean ,no offences to those who find birthdays are great , but I don't quite feel the same on my birthday these days as when I used to feel when I was 10 years old.I am 24 years old now.

Come to think of it a birthday simply means how many revolutions one has completed around the sun. How is this even significant in the cosmic scheme of things ???
And it is not as if our age increases in discrete steps. As our age is a continuous function of time , I personally feel we should celebrate each and every moment of our life and not just birthdays.

Furthermore , if some bloke has a birthday and you have had a quarrel with him the previous day , the society makes you forgive him just because he has a birthday. I find this very irrational.

P.S - I haven't actually had a quarrel with someone on a day before his birthday.

JaredJames

A birthday is a milestone. In the same way reaching each hundred / thousand would be if you're saving a bit each month.
Where I live, that doesn't exist.

Besides, no one can make you forgive someone.

Chi Meson

As someone nearly twice your age, I can assure you that the significance of birthdays will continue to drop each year. As a parent of small children, I can also assure you that birthdays are very significant to the little ones; not only their own, but those of their parents. That is, my recent birthday was far more important to my 7-year old son, than it was to me.

Here at PF, it is nice to have members chirp-in a "HBD" once a year. It reinforces a sense of community (or club or clique or whatever) and humans seem to be hard-wired to desire community (yes there are exceptions).

I do not agree that people are generally "let off the hook" just because it's their birthday. There is a difference between doing something nice for a friend on their birthday, and allowing them to do whatever they like. The first is a basic indicator of friendship, the other is sycophancy.

Jimmy Snyder

It's not just birthdays. Everything has changed since I was 10. My parents knew how to make kids feel special and celebrating birthdays was just a part of it. I did the same for my kids. I even made a big deal of my own birthday for their sake. As Chi Meson points out, it's a part of the bonding process.

arildno

DO come up with something that is significant in the cosmic scheme of things.
I'll disprove its significance.

Immpossible goals are silly goals.

Evo

I think Chi did an excellent job of summing it all up.

My extra 2 cents - for children it's a celebration of when they came into our lives. It makes them feel special about themselves. And it's a PARTY, and there are PRESENTS!

lisab

Also, for children, their age is part of their very *identity*.

For adults, of course, age isn't part of who you are. I never introduce myself as, "Hi I'm Lisa, and I'm 47 years old!"

Jimmy Snyder

Me either.

akd_dka

quite correct

well , I was just being a bit humorous , when I said that.


Yup nothing seems significant in the cosmic scheme of things.


But doesn't it seem strange that taking birth is the one thing over which a person has no control at all , and that moment is the most celebrated.


There are also other events such as new year celebrations and new millenium celebrations which just seem a bit illogical.


Anyways , its not that I am anti-celebrations or anything . For ex - I think it is natural to celebrate if one gets a promotion or one gets married or something, cos the event is quite a recent one. But it would seem a bit odd if I threw a party 4 years after I had a promotion saying this is my 4th anniversary of getting promoted. So why the same about birthdays .

Evo

We celebrate anniversaries of marriage.

arildno

You cannot speak of illogicality or logicality without specifying the system of logic you are working within.

Jimmy Snyder

I took it for granted that the OP was working within that system of logic wherein it's irrational for society to make you forgive someone just because they have a birthday. No?

Evo

I've never heard of having to forgive someone because it's their birthday.

Vanadium 50

I knew a couple which threw a party for all their friends every year on the anniversary of their divorce being finalized. Together.

Anyway, all I can say about the original topic is that having birthdays sure beats the alternative.

Evo

I read that divorce parties are becoming trendy.

arildno

In the cosmic scheme of things, it doesn't reslly matter, illogical or not.
Or possibly it does, but does it matter if it matters?
Isn't that the rub??

Jimmy Snyder

8:14 was the first I'd heard of it.