Happy Birthday Celebration
Introduction :
Celebration of birthday is not unknown in the world. Many parents celebrate the birthdays of their minor children. When the children grow and become adults, many of them celebrate their respective birthdays.
The religious people celebrate the birthdays of their prophets and their incarnated gods. People of a country or nation celebrate the birthdays of their national heroes and their national martyrs. The birthdays of social heroes
and social martyrs are celebrated by the societies concerned. Still there are a lot of people who do not celebrate the birthdays either of themselves or of their children. But they know quite well that Celebration of birthday is customary with many communities in many parts of the world.
Manner of Celebration :
In the family-level, birthdays are celebrated with religious bias. Attending the religious shrines, paying homage to the local deity, heartful prayer to God almighty, paying respect to priests and parents and to respectable elders, giving charity to the poor and wretched and sumptuously feeding the kinsmen are the main features of this Celebration. New dress for the child whose birthday is celebrated and gifts to this child from his relations, specially from his maternal uncle, are some other features. Sometimes Palas and Jatras form parts of it.
Feeling on this day :
Different people feel in different ways when they celebrate their birthdays or when their birthdays are celebrated by others. In some cases, one feels in one way in his grown-up age. Let us see how great men react to their own birthday celebrations.
As for example let us take the case of revered Jawaharlal Nehru. Regarding his birthday Celebration and birthday feelings revered Nehru writes in his autobiography: “But more than all these festivals in one annual event in which I played the central part. The celebration of the anniversary of my birth.
This was the day of great excitement for me. Early in the morning I was weighed a large balance against some bagfuls of wheat and other articles which were then distributed to the poor; and then I arrayed myself in new clothes and received presents, and later in the day there was a party. I felt the hero of the occasion. My chief grievance was that my birthday came so rarely. Indeed,
I tried to start an agitation for more frequent birthdays. I did not realize then that a time would come when birthdays would become unpleasant reminders of advancing age.” People celebrate the birthdays of the heroes of the nation with great pomp. It is a countrywide Celebration and it is considered
as a kind of hero-worship. But certain such heroes feel quite embarrassed, and don’t like to be so worshipped in occasion of their birthdays. So the revered Jawaharlal Nehru requested the people not to celebrate the day as his birthday, but to celebrate it as the children’s day for the well-being of the children. So also revered Dr. Radhakrishnan requested the people not to celebrate the day as his birthday, but to celebrate it as the teachers day for the well-being of the teachers.
Conclusion :
Let us know what should be one’s spirit while celebrating one’s own birthday. On the day of one’s birthday Celebration, one should not allow himself to be swept away by his birthday festivity. On his birthday, he should feel the spirit of thoughtfulness. He should seriously think over what he has done in the year back and what he should do in the year that is to begin.
On his birthday, he should take a vow that he will never allow a single moment to go waste. He should promise that he will do many good and noble things so that people of his country will celebrate his birthday as a mark of indebtedness.