The Russian people are famous all over the world for their beliefs and prejudices. There are many signs associated with events such as weddings, pregnancy, funerals, marriage and so on. But it’s precisely the person’s birthday that is shrouded in a mass of prejudices and raises many questions: why 40 years cannot be celebrated, how many guests should be invited to name days, why candles and others should be put on the cake. Of course, all these signs have their origins in the distant past, people believed that if you follow them, then you can avoid any unhappiness.
There are many questions related to the mystery of celebrating a birthday, but probably the most frequently asked is: “Why can’t you celebrate 40 years?”. And not only those who are close to this milestone are perplexed about this, but other people are just out of curiosity. There is more than one opinion why 40 years are not celebrated. According to some reports, this is due to the fact that the number forty itself is fatal and mysterious. It is often found in the Bible, after Baptism, Jesus Christ spent exactly forty days in the wilderness, as many days in ancient times usually cried for the dead, and the Jewish people suffered 40 years of wandering in the desert. It is also believed that to celebrate the 40th anniversary is practically to welcome your death, because the posthumous fate of the human soul is determined precisely on the fortieth day. The bony one can just greet back, or maybe very soon take the birthday boy with her. There is also such an answer to the question “why 40 years cannot be celebrated”: it is just at this time that the person undergoes an internal transformation and life remains in the usual way or changes abruptly. So, in order to in no way jinx success and success, the fortieth anniversary should not be celebrated.
In addition to this, there are many more signs associated with birthday. For example, according to Slavic beliefs, when a person comes into this world, three evil spirits appear at his cradle, who want to send suffering to him. For them, it is necessary to prepare a sweet treat so that they are distracted from the newborn. And each subsequent year, these spirits will come closer to the festive table in order to spoil. They need to be distracted by red wine, sweet cakes, mead. By the way, it is impossible to celebrate a birthday earlier or later than due precisely to this belief. It is believed that in this case, the spirits will come, but there is no refreshment, and they will remain hungry.
Good spirits come after evil spirits, therefore, in order not to be upset, the birthday person should always be in a good mood, as well as meet them with music, a clean apartment and a neat appearance. In the old days, it was even customary to give each guest a small gift so that good spirits would be favorable to a person. In our time, this has long become history.
Traditionally, on a birthday it ’s customary to say nice and kind words to a birthday man. First of all, this custom used to apply only to newborns in order to attract good luck to the child in the future. But adults also want to hear congratulations and sincere wishes.
Who does not know about superstitions related to the number of guests who need to be invited to the holiday? It is believed that there should be an odd number of them. In principle, this opinion appeared due to the fact that people thought - you need to come in pairs for a birthday. After all, if a person is alone, then he can envy, jinx someone and just wish for evil. The birthday boy should always try to create a friendly and pleasant atmosphere at the holiday, to make sure that no one remains deprived of attention.
Candles on a birthday cake symbolize the stars, which are symbols of the human soul and guardian angels. When people put them in a circle, they create the strength and energy necessary to fulfill a desire.
There are a lot of signs associated with the celebration of the birthday: from "why you can not celebrate 40 years" to "what gifts you can give." All of them seem to have their own obsoning, but it is up to you to believe in them or not.