The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

A friend recently put forth an interesting idea - that she celebrates her birthday as a holy/feast day.  The occasion is marked with offerings and prayers of thanks to her deities, a specially prepared meal shared with others of a similar path, and various rituals of self purification and celebration.  

Does anyone else do this or something similar?  Any thoughts on the celebration of one's own birthday as something sacred or holy?  

I'm still chewing on this idea and still working out some conflicting feelings about it. I'd love to hear other Cauldronites take on this one.

A friend recently put forth an interesting idea - that she celebrates her birthday as a holy/feast day.  The occasion is marked with offerings and prayers of thanks to her deities, a specially prepared meal shared with others of a similar path, and various rituals of self purification and celebration.  

Does anyone else do this or something similar?  Any thoughts on the celebration of one's own birthday as something sacred or holy?  

I'm still chewing on this idea and still working out some conflicting feelings about it. I'd love to hear other Cauldronites take on this one.

 
I think, the idea is common among Laveyan Satanists, with all their self-worship; it is stated in "Satanic Bible" (?), that the most holy day in a Satanist's life is their birthday. Otherwise, I've not heard of religious celebrations of this kind among Pagans.

A friend recently put forth an interesting idea - that she celebrates her birthday as a holy/feast day.

 
I don't think it ought to be a holy day, but it is a cause for celebration! A good day for candles at least.

I like the idea of expressing gratitude for one's existence but turning a birthday into a holy day feels like a bit of self-aggrandizing hubris to me.  

 
Which leads me to further wonder if there are ways that birthdays can be celebrated with religious/spiritual element without turning it becoming narcissistic or self-aggrandizing.

A friend recently put forth an interesting idea - that she celebrates her birthday as a holy/feast day.  The occasion is marked with offerings and prayers of thanks to her deities, a specially prepared meal shared with others of a similar path, and various rituals of self purification and celebration.

 
I do ritual work related to my birthday, but not in the sense of a holy day as in honoring a deity.

My birthday is more or less Mabon (depending when the equinox actually falls: my birthday's the 22nd), and so I usually do some combination of the above:
- Good food
- Good conversation with people I care about
- Work relating to reflecting on the harvest of my last year and what I liked about that and what I want to do differently. This is sometimes journalling, often divination work, often asking trusted friends what they're seeing.
- See also good food.

There's also often a ritual piece, though that depends on other circumstances. (Last year, I was in Montreal for a small convention: great food, great conversation, not as much obvious ritual). This year, I'm expecting more ritual stuff.

Does anyone else do this or something similar?  Any thoughts on the celebration of one's own birthday as something sacred or holy?  

I wouldn't make it a holy day, but I do give offerings to the deities on my birthday.  I give thanks for having been born and for still being alive.  And once or twice Aset has asked me, "What do you want for your Birthday?"  and I'll answer.  

I celebrate Her birthday every year.  She shares Her birthday with me, the least I could do is reciprocate.

In either Laotian or Cambodian Buddhism, there's a tradition of going to the shrine for the day of the week that you were born and pouring a water offering for each year that you've been alive.  I was thinking about incorporating something like this into my own practice.

 
As I have stated here before, i'm not a high magic practitioner, and, along my studies throughout the years, figured it made much more sense to have my own birthday as a holiday than x-mas and new year, given that i don't celebrate them since i was a kid, so, now, my b-day is also  new year's eve and day out of time, my year starts the day after it, and ends the day before it, and is the only holiday of my personal calendar.

A friend recently put forth an interesting idea - that she celebrates her birthday as a holy/feast day.  The occasion is marked with offerings and prayers of thanks to her deities, a specially prepared meal shared with others of a similar path, and various rituals of self purification and celebration.  

Does anyone else do this or something similar?  Any thoughts on the celebration of one's own birthday as something sacred or holy?  

I'm still chewing on this idea and still working out some conflicting feelings about it. I'd love to hear other Cauldronites take on this one.

Interestingly enough I had thought of perhaps celebrating my birthdays as such. However, instead of receiving gifts on my birthday, I would celebrate my birthday by giving gifts instead.

it is an interesting thought.