Talk:Birthday cake

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 22 January 2019 and 23 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Klor022.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 15:50, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Can't hold a candle to me
When were candles first added to cakes? Trekphiler 23:43, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I'd like to know why. It's a rather random tradition when you think about it; I can't think of any other pastry we eat on a recurring basis that's decorated with fire. 71.231.102.185 23:37, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Birthday cakes likely originated with the Egyptians. The Greeks later had birthday cakes for the gods/goddesses. Birthday cake with candles started with the birthday celebration for the Greek moon god Artemis. References 1 2 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Toritaiyo (talk • contribs) 01:15, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Candles
" The origin of birthday cake candles can be further traced back to the 16th century German tradition of placing tapers on Christmas trees. This tradition was then brought to North America by German immigrants. By 1927, the Sears Roebuck catalogue offered birthday candles and holders for sale. "

Originally, this was in the candles section. For me, it is the most important piece of information, while the Goethe excerpt is only secondary; let me explain why. When I first visited the article, it pointed to some obscure cult of Artemis as the origin of the candle tradition. For obvious reasons, the connection is probably spurious and of course, the source cited was by no means academic. My claim for the Germanic origin comes from Cherasky (2000), which, as I recall was a conference paper. Cherasky herself cites Christmas tree tradition as a point of origin and the Goethe kinderfest quote as a primary source. For me, without the tapers, there is no cultural point of origin, no precedent. Goethe attends some prince's bday party, there are candles on the cake, so what? By citing links in germanic culture to festivals, candles, and central objects of celebration; the connection no only less tenuous, but more fully contextualised. Of course, cultural artefacts are never formed or explained so simply and I agree that there is probably no real "explanation"; however, the best we can do is triangulate and provide a cultural context, not for "explaining" but for "understanding" the logic of the time. Without the Christmas tradition, the Goethe account seems to hang alone in empty explanatory space. We are no better off than with obscure Roman cults.

Secondly, 16th cent Germany is hardly 21st cent North America. We must provide explanation and justification, or if nothing else an account of its journey, for its contemporary Western ontology. While I agree that the last two statements do not fully chart the globalisation of the candle tradition, it is a start. I hope that is enough justification to keep them...

As for the citations, I'm sure I've screwed them up, but they should point to Cherasky - if you would be so kind as to show me how to correct them I would appreciate it (I think the sears roebuck may be from elsewhere, I will double check...). Mineminemine (talk) 16:08, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
 * What is your source? Whatever source was originally indicated by the citationbot under the title "autogenerated" was removed, probably because it was not a reliable source. If you have library or other access to a content database such as Lexus/Nexus or EBSCO, find your source there. Otherwise most of the content you find in a news.google.com or books.google.com or scholar.google.com will be acceptable as sources. Pages placed on the web by individuals like your "Cherasky" and found under a normal google.com search are generally not acceptable. -- The Red Pen of Doom  20:23, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

here is the location of the paper: http://www.chowdc.org/Papers/Cherkasky2000.html 9for some reason it is now listed as an attack site, not sure why). Anyway, I originally thought that it was a reprint of a Gastronomica article, but I was incorrect; it is a conference paper from the Culinary Historians of Washington DC. I doubt that the paper has been peer reviewed, but given the facts, wouldn't it still count as a reliable source? Mineminemine (talk) 00:21, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Cutting of the cake
Here in Australia and I believer the rest of the English speaking world, a significant part of the ceremony / ritual of a birthday cake is it being cut by the birthday boy / girl. Also there are 'theories' about green babies and other child like stuff based on if you cut all the way to the bottom etc. Does anyone have any good references to link this and / or any good summaries of this? Can people in other countries confirm this practice occurs in their location? --TinTin (talk) 23:01, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

In India
There are very few people use birth celebration in villages but cities and towns birthday cakes are used similar to western people.

Kalamya (talk) 18:17, 6 June 2017 (UTC)

Introduction, History, Bacteriology, and Culture
Hello, I was browsing through this page and noticed some knowledge gaps that I would like to fill, with your permission. I will list some suggestions below. Let me know what you think!

Introduction: Birthday cakes tend to align with current trends. The media has shown various cake trends that are constantly evolving (different types of shapes and patterns). History: As seen in the section on the history of birthday cakes, citations and references are needed. Bacteriology:  During Covid-19 blowing out the candles took a pause due to the amount of germs spread through this action. Birthday cakes are so embedded in our culture that during covid there was a shift in that culture, changing the way we look at birthday cakes in terms of health and safety. Culture: On the talk page there are a lot of questions about how different cultures celebrate birthdays and how they use birthday cakes. The only answer was brief and needed expansion. I would also like to talk about other cultures.

Thank you so much. Mayareedlevy (talk) 13:45, 14 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Your Covid section here was claiming that The absence of birthday candles was one of the many policies in place to try and reduce the spread of Covid-19, but the cited source doesn't appear to mention candles or cakes anywhere?
 * Whether you meant it literally or for dramatic effect, a statement like In 2020 birthdays changed forever is also inappropriate for a serious encyclopedia. Belbury (talk) 15:47, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
 * thank you for the feedback.
 * I was having issues with my source that mentions birthday candles but it is up and working now.
 * I also took out the part about birthdays changing forever. Mayareedlevy (talk) 18:06, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Which source is it that you believe supports the idea that some Covid mitigation policies required birthday candles to be absent? The source you are citing, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2781306, does not mention candles or birthday cakes. The other sources in that section are from 2017.
 * The fact that birthday parties helped to spread Covid and were affected by regulations is not in itself particularly relevant to this article, which is about birthday cakes. Belbury (talk) 18:15, 21 March 2024 (UTC)