Birthdays in the village of Vasilika

Birthdays in Vasilika

Visilika is a village in Greece. In the past they were not celebrating birthdays, this is because there was widespread illiteracy in rural communities where they considered recording of birth to be inaccurate (they wrote dates on the back of icon), and they always falsified birthdays majorly to reduce age of marriage for girls or to delay army service for boys. Sometimes they celebrated birthdays if only they fell on significant days, such as the national Independence Day and 25 March, or in any case the individual did not have a Christian name in certain periods.

The birthday which is more the same as name-day contrasts in some ways: While the name day has a twofold significant; the spiritual identity of the person is recognized socially, and the social existence of the named individual is honored, a birthday celebration tend to acknowledge an individual's physical nature as well as biological birth and mortality. It marks an individual's material existence within the social world, (Aschenbrenner, S. 1975).

However, today there is a widespread celebration of birthdays. Majority of the people who are about to be almost thirty years old and under have now had the experience of celebrating their birthdays. The young generation which is coming up considers birthday to be a major events.

The state-imposed requirement for pressure of social prestige, powerful economic forces as well as civil registration are some factors that are playing part in establishing new patterns of birthday celebrations. Due to the legal reforms of the PASOK government another perspective of a person's identity has come up, thus providing a fresh rationale for the birthday celebration. Parents are now considering birthdays more European. Selected friends particularly the ones that comes from the child's home, then the table is decorated using printed tablecloth and napkin after ordering a cake from a pastry shop.

Within some circles where birthday is an innovation, parents may tend to express some anxiety over "getting it right" and give a comment that, it is how they do it in Europe. Magazines which are popular always run articles having advices on the way of holding birthday's parties as well as appropriately presents and food. Past the age of eighteen, only special birthdays are celebrated.

Birthday in contrast with the older pattern of name-day celebrations, celebrates birth of an individual as a unique event. They tend not to be public knowledge since they are selective and needs an invitation. They are always not inclusive or communal. They are used to mark an individual's age making it to be the finite passage of life. Moreover birthdays are recognition of a person's physical being because they mark the mortality of humans.

Even though there is much recognition going on about the birthday, they tend to take place concurrently. Nevertheless, with the several changes in the way of carrying birthdays, there is no doubt that several changes will happen to the name-day celebrations.