Birthday celebration traditions in East Asian countries (China, South Korea and Japan) and Lithuania
What birthday traditions do you follow? Regarding food, music, presents, etc.
At birthdays if it is with friends we usually sing "Happy birthday" song, but at home for my family we don't sing it for each other, other music besides that is by preferance, or no music at all. For food cake is mostly at every birthday, but i have been to birthday parties without cake and it was not weird at all. Other food is mostly prepared by the one whose birthday it is (if celebrating at home), mostly some snacks. In family food is prepared by my mom, but nothing big, some stake or meatballs. I often give for other gift coupons, because it is hart to decide what to give, often i just ask for the birthday boy/girl what he/she wants. Some friends would call to say happy birthday at exacly 12 o'clock. In my childhood my familly would have lifted me in the air as many times as old I became. for older people it is not very often, because adults are much heavier and they have more years, which means more times to be lifted. That tires not only guests, but a birthday boy/girl as well.
We always eat cakes and adults drink alcohol. Also, we sing " birthday song" before eating a cake.
We follow other countries' tradition. We put the same number of candles as our age on a birthday. We sing the birthday song in English.
There's definitely always a cake of some sort and usually at least one candle in it. When it comes to other food, presents or music, it's really different every year, depending on the situation. I do have a small personal tradition though - every year I try to find a song related to the age I'm turning and declare it as my birthday song of that year. :D
Regarding food, music, presents, I don't follow any other traditions.
Well.. I don't have any traditions for birthday. I always follow my heart when I'm getting ready. I just do decorations and food that I and my friends like, it's not a very important thing for me.