Birthday is a special event for all of us! Birthday Candles are considered as Wishes. Blowing them out while wishing something from your heart.
A party just isn’t a party without cake…but ever wonder why? Sure, most people like cake. But when and how did the birthday traditions we know today–the cake, the song, the candles, the wish–begin?
1. Fire Launcher Cake Candles
The birthday child’s face lights up as the cake is placed in front of them.
2. Scented Candles for Birthday Cake
The song ending, someone yells, “Make a wish!” The child closes their eyes momentarily, and blows out the candles. Let them eat cake!
3. Alphabetical Candles
The earliest stories of candles and cakes are linked to the ancient Greeks. Once a month, they would celebrate the birth of Artemis, goddess of the moon by making round cakes.
4. Numerical Candles
Lit candles would be placed on the cake to represent a glowing moon and their smoke would carry wishes and prayers to the sky-dwelling gods.
5. Floating Candles for Birthday Cake
The cakes offered to Artemis would not be recognizable as the cakes we enjoy today though. It was around the 1600s when cakes changed to be layered, covered in frosting, and richly decorated.
6. Candles with Rose Petals for Birthday Cake
At the time, a cake like that required high-quality elements and production, meaning it was a luxury for the super-wealthy.
7. Simple Plain Candles
It wasn’t until the Industrial age that mass production made ingredients and equipment cheap enough for the common man.
8. Lotus Birthday Cake Candle
The first well-documented case of candles being placed on a birthday cake comes from Germany in 1746.
9. Firework Birthday Cake Candles
Birthday cakes and candles seem to have spread throughout Germany and then through Europe. It’s not clear how and why, but by about the 1850s records start to appear.
10. Edible Macrons Birthday Cake Candles
A cake would be decorated with the number of candles equal to a child’s age, and while the guests sang hymns the child would blow the candles out, one by one.
11. Chandelier Birthday Cake Candles
The tradition has gently evolved into today’s song-singing, wish-making practices. Modern birthday candles are short, small taper candles made of non-toxic paraffin wax that is safe to drip into the frosting.
There are some fun variations like trick candles which relight after being blown out or edible candles. Or numeral-shaped candles—the smart way to cut down on the number of candles to put on a cake, especially with life expectancy on the rise! VenueMonk brings you different ideas to make your birthday special!
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