Birthday Candles

by Cade

Candles lit on a birthday cake make a birthday celebration magical.  Usually, counting the number of cylinder candles verifies the age of the birthday person.  As the flames flicker, the birthday person closes his or her eyes and makes a silent wish.  Then the candles are blown out by the birthday person.  “What did you wish for?” is often the question asked by the curious, but all know to tell the birthday wish means that the birthday wish won’t be granted.    So the child or adult who hopes to receive that special wish never tells and waits for its deliverance. 

In her paper The Birthday Cake: Its Evolution from a Rite of the Elite to the Right of Everyone, Shirley Cherkasky explains that historically, solar light and light from fire had religious significance, and candles have been used to designate the passage of time.  She goes on to state that the tradition of lighting birthday candles on a cake “seems to have begun in Germany, in the 18th century or earlier”

(www.chowdc.org/Papers/Cherkasky2000.html).

Birthday cake candles vary in style.  You have trick candles that take extra effort to blow out.  Candles exist in the shape of characters and multicolored stick candles.  You can purchase candles in number shapes.  Personalized candles are available, too.  

Whatever type you choose, candles add a sense of awe to the birthday celebration and shouldn’t be forgotten.

July 22nd, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Cakes | (0)