I always wanted to celebrate my birthday in a special way. Birthday is a great holiday and you always expect something great to happen… I could never imagine I would celebrate it in a different country, on a different continent, with people whom I would have never known if I hadn`t come to study here. That`s a great feeling!
Celebrating my 20th birthday in Ukraine 🙂
Birthdays in Canada are as enjoyable as they are in Ukraine. Though your birthday is totally your day, in Ukraine a birthday girl (or a birthday boy) has to do her/his best for her/his friends to have fun. That includes inviting them somewhere, treating and entertaining them. Guests bring presents but they never buy food for the holiday itself. The Ukrainian youth usually celebrate their birthdays at cafes, pizzerias, very often they go to discos.
The things are different for older people. Ukrainian women are very good at cooking and they can not miss a chance to treat their friends on birthdays. Usually Ukrainians invite their guests for a special Birthday supper (or dinner) with a bunch of tasty things on the table. If weather allowes, a picnic in the woods is another option of celebrating
One of my friends lives in Korea. She says, there a birthday is not a signifant holiday, many people don`t celebrate it. Some people still do that, sticking to Canadian type of celebration, that is: your guests treat you. Still, Korean people believe there are certain periods of a human life worth celebration: 100 days, 365 days and 21,900 days of life.
In Italy, young people usually celebrate their birthdays in pizzerias. Usually each person arrives with a gift, but the dinner is not offered by a birthday person. A birthday girl or a birthday boy only pays for the birthday cake and the spumante (Italian champagne).
In Italy, older people invite their friends to restaurants. In this case it`s more usual for a birthday person to pay for the whole dinner. At work places an Italian birthday person offers a simple snack or an aperitif with no special celebration.
Celebrating birthdays, like celebrating any other holiday, is a part of culture. Do you know any other traditions of celebrating birthdays in other countries?
If any of your friends has his or her birthday coming soon, you might want to congratulate him/her in their language: http://www.freelang.net/expressions/birthday.php
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