Our Granddaughter, Emma, turns 11 on Thursday. Our family celebrates birthdays on the weekend before or after the birthday, so.....I always try to get a birthday card mailed in time to be delivered at the birthday girl or boy's actual birth date. As I was getting Emma's card ready I remembered John Brady's recent 7th birthday and his Mom, Kim, asking John Brady if he wanted 7 or 8 candles on his cake.
He wanted 7. He did not want the "one to grow on". This then made me think of the card that I sent to John Brady for his birthday. I always include a dollar for every year and
one to grow on. So, John Brady got 8 dollars and Emma will get 12 dollars on her 11th birthday and Abby will get 11 dollars on her 10th birthday in August.. When I was mailing John Brady's card I didn't have enough one dollar bills so my buddy, Sue, gave me change. As I was counting out the eight dollars to put in the card Sue asked....."why $8 on his 7th birthday"? I replied
"one to grow on!
As I was counting out Emma's money...all of this came back to me and I thought....I have no idea where the
"one to grow on" tradition came from. I decided to find out. I was shocked that I really could not find anything on the Internet about this tradition. I did finally find, on ask.com, where someone else asked the same question ( of course, this
"one to grow on" thing just applies to candles...I started the dollar thing myself) and had received comments. There were some funny comments and some serious comments.....such as....in case no one bakes them a cake next year.....a scheme orchestrated by the candle company to sell more candles....and then from Wikipedia, candles on a birthday cake originated in Germany...extra candles represent the year to come for good luck. Basically, that using an extra candle is regional and many people have never heard of the tradition. I grew up with the extra candle tradition, the make a wish and blow out the candles with one breath tradition ( oh, and many people suggested, in the posts that I read, that the candles not be on the cake because of blowing germs on the cake....please....let the kids be kids!), and ending the Happy birthday song with several additional sayings...
you're growing old, you've got grey hair...etc. I did finally find the best post yet about birthday traditions....
www.tokens.com/birthday-candles
Our Granddaughter, Emma, turns 11 on Thursday. Our family celebrates birthdays on the weekend before or after the birthday, so.....I always try to get a birthday card mailed in time to be delivered at the birthday girl or boy's actual birth date. As I was getting Emma's card ready I remembered John Brady's recent 7th birthday and his Mom, Kim, asking John Brady if he wanted 7 or 8 candles on his cake. He wanted 7. He did not want the "one to grow on". This then made me think of the card that I sent to John Brady for his birthday. I always include a dollar for every year and one to grow on. So, John Brady got 8 dollars and Emma will get 12 dollars on her 11th birthday and Abby will get 11 dollars on her 10th birthday in August.. When I was mailing John Brady's card I didn't have enough one dollar bills so my buddy, Sue, gave me change. As I was counting out the eight dollars to put in the card Sue asked....."why $8 on his 7th birthday"? I replied "one to grow on!
As I was counting out Emma's money...all of this came back to me and I thought....I have no idea where the "one to grow on" tradition came from. I decided to find out. I was shocked that I really could not find anything on the Internet about this tradition. I did finally find, on ask.com, where someone else asked the same question ( of course, this "one to grow on" thing just applies to candles...I started the dollar thing myself) and had received comments. There were some funny comments and some serious comments.....such as....in case no one bakes them a cake next year.....a scheme orchestrated by the candle company to sell more candles....and then from Wikipedia, candles on a birthday cake originated in Germany...extra candles represent the year to come for good luck. Basically, that using an extra candle is regional and many people have never heard of the tradition. I grew up with the extra candle tradition, the make a wish and blow out the candles with one breath tradition ( oh, and many people suggested, in the posts that I read, that the candles not be on the cake because of blowing germs on the cake....please....let the kids be kids!), and ending the Happy birthday song with several additional sayings...you're growing old, you've got grey hair...etc. I did finally find the best post yet about birthday traditions.... www.tokens.com/birthday-candles
2 comments:
I'm 75 and as a kid you could spank somebody one time for each year of their age then give them ONE TO GROW ON!
I'm 75 and as a kid you could spank somebody one time for each year of their age then give them ONE TO GROW ON!
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