Why Do We Celebrate Birthdays
July 25th, 2009
Why do we observe celebrating our birthdays? What is it that we are proud of? Is it because of another year that had passed and we survived it? Are we marking the progress we have made, our cumulative achievements and possessions? Is a birthday the expression of hope for us to live for another year?
None of the above, it would seem.
If it is the past year that we are commemorating, would we still drink to it if we know we are going to die soon? Not likely. But why? What is the relevance of information about the future (our own looming death) when one is celebrating the past? We cannot change the past. No future event can corrupt the fact that we got it through another 12 months of struggle. Then why not celebrate this fact?
Because what we focus on is not the past. Our birthdays are about the future, not of the past. We are celebrating having arrived so far because such outlook in life allows us to live forward. We proclaim our potential to further enjoy the gifts of life. Birthdays are reflections of unrestrained, blind faith in our own suspended mortality.
But, if this were true, certainly we have less and less to celebrate as we grow older. What reason do octogenarians have to drink to one more year if that gift is far from guaranteed? Life offers diminishing returns: the longer you invest, the less you take the marginal dividends of the fruits of your labor, like life insurance. Indeed, based on actuary tables, it becomes increasingly less rational to celeberate as we grow older.
Hence, we are forced into the conclusion self-delusionally defying death are what birthday meant. Birthdays are about preserving the illusion of immortality. Birthdays are forms of acting out our magical thinking. By celebrating our existence, we bestow on ourselves protective charms against the nonsense and arbitrariness of a cruel, impersonal, and often hostile universe.
And, more often than not, it works. Have a no prescription - Happy birthday!
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