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The tradition comes from ancient times, especially from      the Greeks.

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The Greeks made round cakes to honour Artemis,      the goddess of the moon, and added candles to make the cake glow like the moon.

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They believed the smoke from the candles carried      their wishes and prayers up to the gods.

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In Germany during the 1700s, people celebrated children's birthdays (called Kinderfest) with a candle for each year of the child's life.

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Blowing out the candles while making a silent      wish became part of the birthday celebration over time.

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Some people also believe that if you blow out all the candles in one breath, your wish will come true.

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Today, blowing out candles is a fun birthday tradition practiced in many parts of the world, especially in Western cultures.

Useful Phrases

“Make a wish!”

– Said before someone blows out the candles.

“You don’t look a day over [age]”

(used playfully)

“Blow out the candles!”

– What people say to invite the birthday person to blow.

“Happy Birthday to you!”

– The classic birthday song.

“Throw a surprise party”

“One for good luck!”

– A phrase used when giving a bonus candle or birthday pinch/pat.

Hi, everyone and welcome back to the new segment.  【Oh, So That's Why!】《原来如此》. Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu, hi everyone.

In this new segment 安澜and I will explore the origin and the causes of some of the most common human behaviors, sometimes in general, sometimes in western culture. And these behaviors are so common that we often just take them for granted.

Yes!

So what are we gonna talk about today?

Today we're gonna be talking about birthdays, because it's your birthday coming up soon, isn't it?

Yes.

And this year you are....?

18.

18? Okay, I can believe that, you don't look a day over 18.

Good save!

So we can be talking about birthday candles, precisely, why do we blow out birthday candles?

I really have never thought about that. Isn't that just making a wish, kind of thing?

It's making a wish but think about it. Why do we put little candles on cakes?

It really baffled me before because I was like, you want to eat the cake but then you put wax on it. And sometimes if there's no holder, there's no candle holder,  then the wax goes directly into the cake and nobody wants that.

So why, where did this ritual actually come from? And let me guess, knowing you guys, it comes from ancient Rome.

No, it comes from ancient Greece.

It's one of those. 不是古罗马, 就是古希腊. So this time is ancient Greece.

Yeah.

So the Greeks had a goddess called Artemis.

Artemis 就是阿尔忒弥斯, isn't that just Diana.

So the Goddess of the Moon.

对, 在罗马神里就叫戴安娜, 在希腊神里面就叫Artemis.

So Artemis was the Goddess of the Moon, and the Greeks had their own version of moon-cakes. What they used to do was they added candles to make the cake glow like the moon.

So they had their own 月饼essentially.

Pretty much.

So similar to other cultures, they believe that the smoke from the candles carried the wishes and prayers up to the gods or the goddess.

I see, so it's the smoke that carries it.

Yes,  so that's why....

If it smokes like that, it’s not very good candle.

Yeah.

But that's pretty much why we blow out candles. It's not because of the candles themselves. It's the smoke that causes them to rise.

Therefore, when you blow out a candle, there's smoke coming out of it, and that smoke is sending the wish you just made to the gods up in heaven.

So in Germany in the 1700s, that's when people started celebrating children's birthdays or kinder fest, so child festival.

Oh, so before that it wasn't linked with birthdays, it was just for moon or moon worship.

And what they used to do was they had a candle for each year of the child's life.

That's the original birthday cake candles.

So when Germans were celebrating it in the 1700s, were they putting these candles on the birthday cakes?

Exactly.

That was when we started doing it as part of the birthday ritual, so we linked this ancient tradition and this more modern tradition, so you get a cake, you blow out the candles while you make a silent wish.

Yeah, I've heard about that saying that you should not let people know your wish because if you wish for something out loud, that is never gonna come true.

You have to make a silent wish and then blow out the candles.

Isn't there a rule that you have to blow out the candles, and no matter how old you are, you blow out the candles in one breath. And that will guarantee that your wish will come true.

Yes, because essentially it's a lot of smoke at the same time, so it's going up to heavens a lot quicker.

Can’t people just buy better quality candles? So it doesn't give out smoke.

That's the whole point, it’s meant to give out smoke.

Should we just buy really poor quality candles so it gives out more smoke.

Nowadays we don't really put the number of candles, we just have numbered candles, makes it easier.

Yes, numbered candles or just a few candles. There's no hard and fast rule.

Yeah I mean for me it's just 18 so it's not too much.

Right,  okay,  let's go with that. Yeah.

Now jokes aside, come to think of it. That is right blowing out candles although now it’s such a commonplace in China,  we have so many bakeries offering birthday cakes and the candles that go with it, but it's not a Chinese tradition. We used to eat 长寿面, we still sometimes do.

And some of the older people if you ask them, they would say我不过生日, I've never really had that kind of celebrations.  So it's distinctively western.

It is and pretty much everyone has the same kind of birthday celebration, there's always a cake, there's always candles no matter if it's with a large group or just a few friends or family.

or if you're really sad alone.

...or alone. in the dark room, also that as well.

So do you do that? Does your family do that when someone's having a birthday party or a birthday? You will buy the cake, put the candle on, ask this person to make a wish and blow out the candle.

That is it. You sing birthday songs as well.

Of course you do.

I see.

So now before we wrap up this episode, let us talk about some useful phrases relating to blowing out birthday candles.

For example, people would say “make a wish”.  

So we would say normally “make a wish”,  obviously you don't say what the wish is, but people would just normally say “make a wish”.

And then blow out the candles, blow out the candles, to blow out the candles.  If you're really naughty, you buy one of those trick candles that you cannot blow out.

My parents try to do that once and it was very, very annoying.

That is mean.

... very very annoying.

Because you're like why can’t I blow out the candles? Does that mean my wish will not come true?

But the birthday cake should always be a surprise.

This is one thing in Britain for example, that even though you're gonna get a cake, it should always be a surprise.

You know what, next time, I'll surprise you by just smashing it right in your face. You'll never see it coming.  

Or you could just throw me a surprise party.

No, that's too much work. I'll just smash it in your face... Charming ... when you’re least expecting.

So not actually on my birthday evening.

I mean they offer cakes every day.

There we go.

But you were talking about throwing a surprise birthday party.  

It's very interesting. They use the word “throw” a party.

To be honest  I really don't know why we say throw a surprise party. It just means to organize a surprise party.

组织或者去办一个惊喜派对, 就是对方不知道的.

I hate surprise parties.

I had a surprise party once before and I got really embarrassed.

Yeah, because you don't really know who's going to show up; and if you are getting the cake or the gifts that you don't really like, you have to pretend, if there's one thing I don't wanna do on my birthday is to pretend to like things I don't like, so unless you know me very well, don't throw me surprise parties.

Please don't, yeah.

We are so boring.

We are very very very boring.

One more thing, remember earlier on we were making fun of my age and all that,  but there is something you can say after they blow out the candles, you can say you don't look a day over..., for example it's their 30th birthday, and you say you don't look a day over 30.

Yeah, exactly. It means that you look very young so you can make it into like a sort of mean joke like you don't look a day over 60 or you can make it into something a bit sweeter like I would say to Lulu, you don't look a day over 18.

And I take that as an honest comment.

Make of it what you will.

All right. On that note we're going to wrap up today. Leave us comment in the comment section and put in your request for whatever human behavior that you want us to talk about.

So until next time!

We'll see you next time.

Bye bye.