Actually they celebrated during the weekend when I was in Bordeaux because it was the only weekend the whole family was free, but well today was the actual birthday. So…let me first tell you how I’m used to celebrating a birthday.
The family (except the birthday-child of course) prepares (or have already prepared) a cake in the morning, and the presents are already wrapped. You then, while going into the bedroom of the birthday-child, wake him/her up by singing the birthday song. You then eat breakfast and cake and open presents in bed, unless you have too many presents/people/food to eat it all in bed, in which case you perhaps move into the dining or living room. This you do in the morning, regardless of what day it is. So if you have school at 8 and are used to get up at 7, be prepared that your family will wake you up at 6 so that you have time to eat the cake and open the presents, or at least some of them. This way it is also impossible to forget to say happy birthday, because everything has already been planned the evening before with the rest of the family.
Then in the evening it is tradition that the birthday-child decides what’s for dinner, or that the family has prepared something real nice, something they know the birthday-child likes, or that they eat out. The rest of the day might be quite boring however if you have like school or work.
Now, the French experience:
I had asked during the weekend if they celebrated birthdays in the morning or not. Getting a no, I was gonna go to FNAC to buy a birthday present today on my way to class since I could just give it to him in the evening then anyway. Yet even though I was gonna go to FNAC, and I remembered I was going, I forgot to say happy birthday in the morning… Apparently the mother had forgotten to say happy birthday before she had left for work too.
But nevertheless I went to the store and got a book. I had even, with the mum of course, sneaked on his kindle to try to figure out his taste, so I knew what I was looking for.
Back at home in the afternoon the mum calls, first saying happy birthday(!!) and then to ask him when he’ll get home from work, “because it’s your birthday”.
“Oh yes…right, it’s my birthday…uhm, well in that case I won’t stay too long”.
Oh yes? He forgot himself?
And not too long? He got back at 7pm.
At that point I gave him the present (but to open after dinner). For dinner we had frozen pizzas and french fries. Not frozen obviously, but as in from the freezer that you just stick in the oven for a couple of minutes. What’s more, he had apparently had the exact same thing for lunch….
So basically a very different birthday from what I’m used to. Alright, they celebrated during the weekend but in my culture, as a kid, or even as an adult, you have a party for your friends/family perhaps during the weekend, but even so you would still celebrate on the actual birthday as described above.
The only thing that actually resembled what I’m used to is having some kind of caky thing which we had for desert, and with candles. I’m used to only having leftovers of, or a entirely new cake for desert though, because you already had some for breakfast!
But now I really get how it’s possible to forget someone’s birthday. I always watch those American films or series thinking it’s so unrealistic that no-one remembers your birthday, but maybe not if you don’t do it in the morning…
So, enough of birthdays for now. Until next time!