2006-12-12 01:19:48 · 9 answers · asked by Steven A 1 in Games & Recreation ➔ Other - Games & Recreation
Luck and good fortune
2006-12-12 01:22:16 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because wax tastes like ***.. The ritual was symbollic of calling an end to the last year of your life back in a time when the last thing people did in the day was blow out the candle in their bedroom. You wish before blowing out the candles because your birthday wish was meant to be for the comming year of your life. You have to make it before you begin that year.
2016-03-13 06:07:16 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tradition of placing candles on Birthday cake is attributed to early Greeks, who used place lit candles on cakes to make them glow like the moon. Greeks used to take the cake to the temple of Artemis-the Goddess of Moon. Some scholars say that candles were placed on the cake because people believe that the smoke of the candle carried their wishes and prayers to Gods who lived in the skies. Others believe that the custom originated in Germany where people used to place a large candle in the centre of the cake to symbolize ‘the light of life’.
I would say that blowing on them is so you don't burn your eyebrows like someone suggested.
2006-12-12 01:32:43 · answer #3 · answered by b94897p8 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think you want to blow OUT the candles.
It is an American tradition to have a birthday cake with the number of candles on it that represent your age...if your 8 years old, you get 8 candles...if your fifty, you get fifty (and people joke about your cake burning down the house).
The tradition is that if you can blow out all the candles in one breath, you will get your wish. A person makes a silent wish before they blow the candles out.
2006-12-12 01:23:40 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
The German periodical "Schwäbische Zeitung" (magazine supplement Zeit und Welt) of April 3/4, 1981 on page 4 stated: "The various customs with which people today celebrate their birthdays have a long history. Their origins lie in the realm of magic and religion. The customs of offering congratulations, presenting gifts and celebrating - complete with lighted candles - in ancient times were meant to protect the birthday celebrant from the demons and to ensure his security for the coming year. . . . Down to the fourth century Christianity rejected the birthday celebration as a pagan custom."
The book The Lore of Birthdays (New York, 1952) by Ralph and Adelin Linton, on pages 8, 18-20 had this to say: "The Greeks believed that everyone had a protective spirit or daemon who attended his birth and watched over him in life. This spirit had a mystic relation with the god on whose birthday the individual was born.
The Romans also subscribed to this idea. . . . This notion was carried down in human belief and is reflected in the guardian angel, the fairy godmother and the patron saint. . . . The custom of lighted candles on the cakes started with the Greeks. . . . Honey cakes round as the moon and lit with tapers were placed on the temple altars of [Artemis]. . . . Birthday candles, in folk belief, are endowed with special magic for granting wishes. . . . Lighted tapers and sacrificial fires have had a special mystic significance ever since man first set up altars to his gods. The birthday candles are thus an honor and tribute to the birthday child and bring good fortune"
This same book, on page 20, also had this to say about the traditional greeting of 'Happy Birthday': "Birthday greetings and wishes for happiness are an intrinsic part of this holiday. . . . originally the idea was rooted in magic. The working of spells for good and evil is the chief usage of witchcraft. One is especially susceptible to such spells on his birthday, as one's personal spirits are about at the time. . . . Birthday greetings have power for good or ill because one is closer to the spirit world on this day."
And Horst Fuhrmann, professor of medieval history at the University of Regensburg, made this comment about birthdays: "The birthday celebration was in honor of one's guardian angel or god, whose altar was decorated with flowers and wreaths; sacrifices were offered to the god of festival, friends offered congratulations and brought gifts." Furthermore, he stated in the German newspaper "Süddeutschen Zeitung": "Great prominence was given the birthday parties held for the emperor, replete with parades, public banquets, circus plays, and the hunting of animals: spectacles disgusting to the [early] Christians."
2006-12-12 01:29:40 · answer #5 · answered by davelibby321 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So you don't burn your face when you go to eat it. If you have ever tried to eat cake with the candles still lit you would know what I mean. My eyebrows are just now growing back. Thanks for the 2 points.
2006-12-12 01:23:13 · answer #6 · answered by Breaking hearts since 1977 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
you close your eyes and make a wish. don't tell anybody what your wish was though, if you want it to come true.
2006-12-12 01:28:04 · answer #7 · answered by lrfoster7 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To make your wish come true.
2006-12-12 01:21:28 · answer #8 · answered by Koko Loco 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
its to show that you can just "blow away" the year you just lived through...
2006-12-12 01:43:19 · answer #9 · answered by tanyamarie23 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yay two points!! =D
2006-12-12 01:25:36 · answer #10 · answered by nico 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋