Happy Birthday us!

We even got you a cake! Actually, we got ourselves a cake. Hold on, I'm gonna make a wish.

I can't tell you what I wished for, but I can say that I sure hope Beyonce is a guest

host of Mental Floss next year.

So the Mental Floss List Show is officially one year old. Today, I'm going to talk about

some ways that people celebrate birthdays around the world in different cultures and

different religions. Plus, I'm going to demonstrate some of these so that we can properly celebrate

our birthday!

And for those of you who've been complaining that we've been a little bit USA-centric lately,

we're gonna get very worldwide today!

Let's start with the actual origins of birthdays themselves. They may have started with the

ancient Egyptians, like the Bible notes a Pharaoh's birthday, although it's possible

that could mean the date of the Pharaoh's death, like the day that he became a god.

The ancient Romans definitely celebrated birthdays, though, and were probably the first people

to celebrate their family and friends birthdays, not just those of rulers and gods.

In Denmark, a Danish flag placed outside the home means that it's somebody's birthday.

If it's a child's birthday, the presents are usually placed on or around the child's bed

so they can wake up surrounded by presents. That's nice! Sometimes a "cake man" or "cake

lady" is served, depending on whether the party is for a boy or a girl. The head of

the cake person is usually chopped off first, which I will now demonstrate. This was a camel

- And now it is a decapitated camel.

At birthday parties for children in Australia and New Zealand, you might find Fairy Bread,

which is white bread, butter, and sprinkles. By the way, the round and colorful sprinkles

are called "hundreds-and-thousands" there.

I'm now going to make some Fairy Bread because it is basically the perfect food so far as

I can tell. What I'm not an expert in? Butter spreading. All right, then you just. What

do you do, you just kinda - WOAH! Can you fold it up into, like, a Fairy Bread sandwich?

Is that frowned upon, Australians? I don't know, I'm gonna try it. Good!

At a Brazilian birthday party, people might pull the earlobes of the guest of honor. You

can also probably expect to see Brigaderio there, which are a kind of chocolate truffle.

Ear-pulling is also a thing in Hungary where there's in fact a rhyming song that accompanies

it! The translation is, "God bless you, live so long your ears reach your ankles."

Earlobe pulling is kind of similar to what other cultures refer to as "the bumps." The

bumps are especially common in the UK and Ireland where the birthday boy or girl is

lifted up and bumped on the ground once per each year they have been alive. The U.S. and

Canada also have a similar tradition, but with punches instead of bumps because we're

much more violent.

Another violent-sounding tradition in the U.S. are "smash cakes." These are small individual

cakes given to babies to do what they do best: make a mess of their food. I'm not going to

explain this one because you're on the Internet, so I assume that you've already seen how adorable

it is to watch babies destroy stuff, instead, I'm gonna demonstrate.

So I am a father, I've seen children do this a lot. Basically you just go in and you just..

Then you go... That's basically it.

In additions to punches, Canadians have been known to spread butter on the nose of the

birthday person. Mark, I know that you're Canadian, but please don't make me do this

one because I just finished cleaning myself up after the smash cake. Similarly, it's considered

good luck in Nepal to put colored rice yogurt on your forehead for birthdays.

Mexicans have a special birthday song, \'93Las Mananitas (aka "The Little Mornings") which

is usually sung at a party before the group eats cake. And of course, pinatas are a common

way to celebrate a birthday in Mexico. Although we usually think of them as Mexican, pinatas

actually originated in China and were used to celebrate New Years. It was Europeans who

eventually brought them over to Mexico.

In Ghana, a traditional birthday dish is oto - mashed yams with eggs and onions. In China,

Yi mein is commonly eaten on birthdays. In English, those are

Longevity noodles" or long life noodles." Also, be sure to avoid

giving a watch or a clock as a gift in China. Those are considered bad luck.

Celebrating individual birthdays is rare in Vietnam. Instead, all birthdays are celebrated

on the Vietnamese holiday of Tet, which is a New Years celebration. Children do receive

gifts though! Their elders give them red envelopes with money inside. Korea operates somewhat

similarly - first birthdays are celebrated, but subsequent birthdays are all celebrated

on the New Year.

Wishing someone "happy birthday" before their actual birthday is considered bad luck in

Germany. On someone's 16th birthday in Germany, they may have flour thrown on their head,

which may sound rough, but in Jamaica, throwing flour on the head is an every birthday tradition,

not just a one time thing. I'm not going to throw flour on anyone's head here, but I will

demonstrate with a doll.

Happy Birthday, Yoda. What are you, like, a thousand now?

Anyway, back to Germany...On 18th birthdays, the flour is replaced with eggs. And if a

man reaches his 25th birthday before he marries, his friends will hang a "sockencranz," or

sock wreath, outside of his house. The "old socks" are a symbol of his old age.

On that note, some cultures have different traditions for when people turn a certain

age. Like, you probably already know that girls who practice Judaism have bat mitzvah

when they turn 12 and boys have a bar mitzvah when they turn 13. Those ceremonies represent

a move into adulthood.

Let's finish up with some more age-specific traditions.

I'm sure you've also heard of a Quinceanera...especially if you were spending all of your free time

watching "My Super Sweet 16" in 2005. I'm not pointing any fingers, Meredith.

In South Africa, when a person turns 21, their parents present them with a key that symbolizes

responsibility and the future.

In Holland, they celebrate "crown years," which are the ages 5, 10, 15, 20, and 21.

On those birthdays, you get bigger presents.

The 1st, 5th, 10th, and 15th birthdays are the most important in Nigeria. Up to 100 people

might show up to those celebrations, which usually involve a feast.

For boys who practice Orthodox Judaism and Hasidic Judaism, the third birthday is important

because it's the day they receive their first haircut. In fact, that tradition has now spread

in Israel and doesn't always apply only to religious people.

Similarly, people from the Indian island of Minicoy shave their newborn baby's head after

twenty days. Then, the hair is weighed. Whatever the weight is will be given to charity in

silver or gold. That's not a birthday thing, really, we just thought it was cool.

And now I return to my salon to tell you that the Chinese also a special first birthday

tradition. The baby is placed in front of a bunch of objects, like books, flowers, stationary,

coins, and toys. Parents believe that the items the baby reaches for are indications

of future interests. So like if a coin is chosen, it's considered good luck and a sign

that the baby in question will one day be rich. We're going to try this out actually

with our office dog, Alex. All right now, let's see what will you choose. Umm.. It turns out Alex is beyond material possession. She chooses life

Thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube which is made with the help of all of these

nice people. Each week we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions. This week's

question comes from TheNightTroll13, who asks, "Why do we call a sixtieth of a minute a second?"

Well, NightTroll13, this comes from a Latin word, "secunda," which meant "second diminished

part" because the hour is divided twice by sixty - the first division of it is minutes,

the second division gives us seconds.

If you have a mind-blowing question you'd like answered, please leave it below in and

we'll endeavor to answer as many as we can. Thanks for watching and as we say in my hometown,

don't forget to be awesome.

That's a pretty strong pinata!

Aaaahhh! Finally!