That we celebrate the day of our birth?

Certainly!

Once upon a time you were born. You emerged from your mom, and transitioned from fetus to baby. Congrats!

You didn’t really do anything, besides wiggle on out, cry, and don an adorably cute hat. Aside from this fact, you choose to accept a shower of gifts annually on that very day you did.

Strangely society has established this perspective, creating a portmanteau and enormous fad based on the day you were born. It is known universally as, “The Birthday!”

The effects of birthday excitement have pervaded our environment left and right. For example, you will see the prominence of birthday culture in drug stores, particularly in the greeting card section. In fact, there is a whole area of cards labeled, “birthday.” That’s right, entire pages of cute messages congratulating you on being born that very day however many years before.

Other products encouraging birthday joy include: balloons, colored rolls of weird-textured paper, pastries, and whatever the birthday boy/girl desires.

But it doesn’t stop there. Birthday culture is very visible in American folk music, particularly with the song, “Happy Birthday.” This weird song involves repeating the phrase, “happy birthday to you,” addressing this “you” dearly and personally, and then concluding with a final “happy birthday to you.”

Another weird fact about birthdays is that they are completely generic. By that I mean that we, as thinking people, created a calendar and representation of days and years. This means we invented our “birthday”. Try to wrap your mind around that weird fact!

Another weird fact about the day you were born is that for it to be a success, it must be “good.” A good birthday includes, but is not limited too, many congratulations on being born (generally expressed in the colloquial phrase, “happy birthday”), being treated well by ALL, and possibly having a party thrown for you. Weirdly enough, the day on which we were born allows us an extraordinary sense of entitlement.

For example, a good deal of this post was inspired by one of my favorite comedians, and normally I wouldn’t feel worthy enough to post this. But it is after all, March 17th, the day of my birth! Readers - weirdly enough, I expect many comments congratulating me on being born this day 19 years ago.