h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's a very good point Jim!

Entry: Birthdays - A54734565
Author: Elentari - U202814

Quick reference!

I had a distant aunt (or something) born on the 29th of Feb. Although they weren't close, my mother always sent her a card when it actually was a leap year (saying that she only got 'real' birthday cards then). I suppose it does make your birthday easy to remember if you're a 29/2-er...

i thought it was the main quirk in the birthdays, it would be bad for children, with parents, like my mate, he said his mother, as he dindt know his father, would used the fact, not to get a pressie, when he was young.
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jim

nearly forgot
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it would be worth finding out,how many are born on the feb 29th,comapered to the ones on normal years, ie the percentage.
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jim

I'll definitely include leap year birthdays, good point!

Leap year birthdays, the age of reason and St Catherine's day info added.

It's looking good !

Note that, for St Catherine's day, it's just unmarried women of 25.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Catherine's_Day (see 'France')

Amended.

Hi again

When you mention Greece (for the name days) perhaps you'd like to link to this A133066 which in fact mentions that many Greeks celebrate their (Saint) name days more their their birthdays (mentioned under religion)

Each city also has a saint protector, which is celebrated as well on their nameday.

i have at the back of my mind to coming of age things, i will look into when i go to the cyber later today.
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one connected with africa and one the red indians.and boys coming of age.
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you may not want to add this, but its a fact that in the red indian tribes,in the past, if a child is not perfect, the child was not allowed to live, jim

here is something you might want to look more into.
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how in the old days, children, when they reached their 4th birthday, or even younger, had to work, in the textile, coalmines, and up the chimneys. jim

A good point Jim, and indeed there are young children in many countries who continue to work in slave-like conditions. I'm not so sure it was/is at a set age though, and probably people in this appalling condition didn't/don't have much time for celebrating birthdays.

As this specific entry focusses on birthdays, I'm not sure it's the best place for this information. But perhaps it will give somebody an idea of writing a short history of child labour in the UK.

hi b eagle
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i have been watching the doley doc, on the cocoa farms, children weilding machetts as young as 5, the cuts on each where scarey.
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thats what twigged my mind on the last message.
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there is also the cheldren as yound as 5 that are being taught to shoot rifles, and kill. jim

Hi Elentari,

Nice Entry

As a famil6y, we often host students from overseas, including Japan. One year, the students gave us a present of a booklet they'd made in class about Japanese culture. (I used this as a basis for my Entry on Hina-Matsuri A9785064).

Here is what they said about birthdays in Japan:

"Shichi-go-san literally means seven, five and three. This celebration is held on November 15th. This ritual is held as a celebration for children who have reached the ages of seven, five and three years. Family members hold this celebration by dressing btheir 7, 5 and 3 year-old children in their best clothes.
For three-year-old girls, the day is also celebrated as the day they wear kimonos with sashes for the first time. For 5-year-old boys, it's the day when they can wear hakama, a kind of divided skirt.
For seven-year-old boys and girls , it's considered the last important event of their childhood. On this day, parents and grandparents go to visit shrines and visit relatives."

A

Me again

The shrines visited are Shinto shrines. Shintoism is explained here A19773624 'Japanese History and Culture'

That comment of Jim's about 4th birthdays reminds me that the fifth birthday used to be the day a small boy was "trousered". I have a lovely picture of my father, who turned 5 in 1924, when he was put in shorts for the first time.

Up until that age, small children - boys and girls - all wore dresses. This probably for ease of changing nappies, or potty training, and also possibly because no seamstress would dream of tackling trousers that small. Also maybe because they couldn't imagine making trousers of any material other than woollen flannel, which would be too rough and inflexible for a child. (This last is entirely speculation on my part)

>>>>small children - boys and girls - all wore dresses. This probably for ease of changing nappies, or potty training

I was surprised to learn of the dresses.
In the Far East (in China at least in the 1970s), some toddlers didn't wear underwear. Boys had a kind of crutchless pair of shorts and longish teeshirt. Presumably this helped with 'potty training'. In a crouched position, the children were appropriately "unclothed".

Updated.