SWRB does not necessarily endorse anything outside or beyond the testimony against the pagan practice of birthday keeping in, or from, any of the information or sources quoted in this blog.

There is an affinity of such commemoration among the wicked as recorded in The Satanic Bible (Anton Szandor LaVey, (Air) Book of Lucifer – The Enlightenment, Avon Books, 1969, Ch XI, Religious Holidays, p. 96) regarding Birthdays:

"The highest of all holidays in the Satanic religion is the date of one’s own birthday. This is in direct contradiction to the holy of holy days of other religions, which deify a particular god who has been created in an anthropomorphic form of their own image, thereby showing that the ego is not really buried. The Satanist feels: ‘Why not really be honest and if you are going to create a god in your image, why not create that god as yourself." Every man is a god if he chooses to recognize himself as one. So, the Satanist celebrates his own birthday as the most important holiday of the year. After all, aren’t you happier about the fact that you were born than you are about the birth of someone you have never even met? Or for that matter, aside from religious holidays, why pay higher tribute to the birthday of a president or to a date in history than we do to the day we were brought into this greatest of all worlds? Despite the fact that some of us may not have been wanted, or at least were not particularly planned, we’re glad, even if no one else is, that we’re here! You should give yourself a pat on the back, buy yourself whatever you want, treat yourself like the king (or god) that you are, and generally celebrate your birthday with as much pomp and ceremony as possible."

http://www.mashiyach.com/Misc/birthdays.htm

It is interesting that birthdays are considered the most important holiday to these Satan worshipers (the founding of their “church”, called Walpurgisnacht, and Halloween are the other ones of importance to them).

Of course, early Christians did not celebrate birthdays nor did the early Jews. Nor have real Christians ever celebrated Halloween.

http://www.cogwriter.com/news/doctrine/the-satanic-bible-and-birthdays/

Origen of Alexandria, writing over two centuries after the death of Jesus follows this same line when he recorded a diatribe against the memories of birthdays, indicating that at the time of his writing, a day to remember the birth of Jesus was not part of the church calendar. In his Homilies on Leviticus, speaking on the aspect of birth, Origen states:

. . . not one from all the saints is found to have celebrated a festive day or a great feast on the day of his birth. No one is found to have had joy on the day of the birth of his son or daughter. Only sinners rejoice over this kind of birthday. For indeed we find in the Old Testament Pharaoh, king of Egypt, celebrating the day of his birth with a festival, and in the New Testament, Herod. However both of them stained the festival of his birth by shedding human blood. . . . But the saints not only do not celebrate a festival on their birth days, but, filled with the Holy Spirit, they curse that day (, after the example of Job, Jeremiah and David).

(Barkley, Homilies on Leviticus: 1–16 / Origen, 1990, 156.)

http://firstfollowers.vision.org/public/blog/170001?archive=Weekly+.2007-50 and http://snipurl.com/8zkwz [books_google_ca]

What is the origin of birthday celebrations?

Birthday celebrations are actually rooted in paganism.

The Encyclopedia Americana (1991 edition) states:

"The ancient world of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Persia celebrated the birthdays of gods, kings, and nobles."

Authors Ralph and Adelin Linton reveal the underlying reason for this. In their book The Lore of Birthdays, they write:

"Mesopotamia and Egypt, the cradles of civilization, were also the first lands in which men remembered and honoured their birthdays. The keeping of birthday records was important in ancient times principally because a birth date was essential for the casting of a horoscope."

So, there is a direct connection between the Pagan practice of birthday celebrations and astrology (horoscopes and fortune telling).

Not surprisingly then, the ancient Jews did not celebrate birthdays, regarding them as Pagan.

Also, The World Book Encyclopedia (volume 3, page 416) states:

"The early Christians did not celebrate His [Christ's] birth because they considered the celebration of anyone's birth to be a pagan custom."

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_birthday_celebrations

Down to the fourth century Christianity rejected the birthday celebration as a pagan custom.

http://www.abcog.org/birthday.htm

To satiate this point, notice also the record of the first century historian Josephus: The Jews in Christ’s day knew God’s attitude toward birthday celebrations, “Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us to make festivals at the births of our children” (Flavius Josephus, Against Apion, Book II, section 26).

http://yearegods.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/should-christians-celebrate-birthdays/

History of celebration of birthdays in the West

It is thought that the large-scale celebration of birthdays in Europe began with the cult of Mithras, which originated in Persia but was spread by soldiers throughout the Roman Empire. Before this, such celebrations were not common; and, hence, practices from other contexts such as the Saturnalia were adapted for birthdays. Because many Roman soldiers took to Mithraism, it had a wide distribution and influence throughout the empire... (Wikipedia. Birthdays. July 12, 2007 version).

Christmas is also relevant because December 25th was the day of celebration of the birthday of the sun-god Mithra.

... The World Book Encyclopedia notes,

Christmas... In 354 A.D., Bishop Liberius of Rome ordered the people to celebrate on December 25. He probably chose this date because the people of Rome already observed it as the Feast of Saturn, celebrating the birthday of the sun (Sechrist. Christmas. World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 3. 1966, pp. 408-417).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday

Long ago, the average person never paid any attention whatsoever to the anniversary of their birth. The initial pattern that developed concerned the celebrating of the birthday of their deity, once each year, at the winter solstice. This is the origin of Christmas, since the winter solstice was considered the "re-birth" or "birthday" of the solar deity (Natalis Sol Invictus, or the Nativity of Sol, the unconquerable). This alone marks the behavior as originating from the rebellion against YaHUaH, Who is the one and only Elohim of Heaven and Earth. Remember that YaHUaH commanded that we not learn the ways of the heathen (Dt. 12). Later, people began to celebrate the annual birth of their king at the same time as their deity, aligning their ruler with the same honors given to their deity. In their minds, their ruler became an anthropomorphic version of their deity. In the east, average people slowly began to celebrate their personal "birth day" once each year on what they believed to be "new year's day." Eventually, people developed the custom of observing their personal birth day on the annual day they were actually born.

http://www.fossilizedcustoms.com/birthday.html

Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday; Arnobius (VII, 32 in P.L., V, 1264) can still ridicule the "birthdays" of the gods.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm

In their essay titled "Birthdays, Jewishly," Lisa Farber Miller and Sandra Widener point out that the Encyclopedia Judaica is very blunt on this topic:

"The celebration of birthdays is unknown in traditional Jewish ritual."

... Originally, even as more and more Gentiles began to profess Christ (so much so that they outnumbered those of Jewish heritage that did), the early Gentile leaders also did not endorse the celebration of birthdays. No early church writer endorsed the observance of birthdays by Christians, nor are they ever listed in the early observances of the Christian church.

Therefore, the celebration of birthdays, was clearly not part of "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

No early religious/church writing from the second century that I have seen (and I have read most that are available) seems to endorse (or even suggest) the celebration of birthdays by any who professed Christ.

Although he was not part of the Church of God, the writings of the early third century Catholic theologian Origen of Alexandria show that, even that late, Orthodox Catholics were against the celebration of birthdays. The Catholic Encyclopedia states:

Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday (Martindale C. Christmas, 1908).

http://www.cogwriter.com/birthdays.htm

The World Book -- Childcraft International says regarding “Holidays and Birthdays,” “For thousands of years people all over the world have thought of a birthday as a very special day. Long ago, people believed that on a birthday a person could be helped by good spirits, or hurt by evil spirits. So, when a person had a birthday, friends and relatives gathered to protect him or her. And that's how birthday parties began.”

“The idea of putting candles on birthday cakes goes back to ancient Greece. The Greeks worshipped many gods and goddesses. Among them was one called Artemis.

“Artemis was the goddess of the moon. The Greeks celebrated her birthday once each month by bringing special cakes to her temple. The cakes were round like a full moon. And, because the moon glows with light, the cakes were decorated with lighted candles.”

This authority goes on:

“More and more, though, people the world over attach a certain magic to their actual date of birth. . . We may wear a ring with our birthstone in it for good luck. And when we blow out the candles on our birthday cake, we are careful to keep what we wished a secret. If we tell, of course, our wish won't come true.

“In other words, WE FOLLOW MANY OF THE OLD BIRTHDAY BELIEFS. We pay attention to the meanings of old-time birth symbols. And WE CARRY ON THE OLD CELEBRATIONS. We don’t necessarily take them seriously. We do these things mainly for fun. But it is also possible that there is something deep inside us that wants to believe.”

Why do people say, “Happy birthday!” to each other? Says this authority, “For the good wishes of our friends and relatives are supposed to protect us from evil spirits.”

What about birthday thumps, bumps, pinches, and the like?

“In many parts of the world, it is a tradition to give the birthday child pinches, smacks, spanks, thumps, bumps, or punches. Even though they may hurt a little, they are said to be very lucky. . .

“The reason for birthday spanks is to spank away any evil spirits and send them scurrying far into the distance. Punches, thumps, and pinches, the harder the better, are supposed to do the very same thing. . .

“Party snappers, horns, bursting balloons, firecrackers, and other noisemakers are just one more way of trying to scare off any bad-luck spirits that may be hovering about.”

What about traditional birthday games, such as “Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey”?

“The games we play at birthday parties are often a symbol of trying to know the unknown.  In this case, of course, the unknown is the future, or the new year of life that lies ahead for the birthday child.

“One of the oldest birthday games is Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey. A large picture of a donkey without a tail is pinned to the wall.  Each child at the party is given a donkey’s tail made out of paper and a pin to stick through it.  Then, one by one, the children are blindfolded. They are spun around a few times and pointed in the general direction of the donkey. The child who pins the tail the closest to where it should be on the donkey wins the prize.

“There are other versions of this game, such as Pin-the Nose-on-the-Clown or Pin-the-Ear-on-the-Bunny. But the idea of trying to guess correctly, while blindfolded, is the same.”

All these customs and traditions connected with the observance of birthdays have to do with guessing the future, good wishes for the future, good luck charms against evil spirits, and the like. All the birthday rituals, games, and ceremonies are a form of well-wishing toward the birthday child, which are supposed to work their magic in the year ahead.

But, as we have seen, the custom is totally PAGAN!  The ceremonies and games involve warding off evil spirits and protecting the birthday child from evil.  These are pagan customs – vain and foolish rituals -- nothing but useless pagan SUPERSTITION!

Should God’s people have anything to do with ceremonies that trace back ancient pagan societies and pagan times, involving pagan practices?  Should a true Christian indulge himself or his or her children in pagan birthday parties, just because they seem so attractive, fun, and “innocuous”?

The Word of God thunders, “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

“And what agreement hath the temple of God with IDOLS? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

“Wherefore COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM, and BE YE SEPARATE, saith the Lord, and touch not the UNCLEAN THING; and I will receive you, and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (II Corinthians 6:14-18).

"A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth."  Ecclesiastes 7:1

     "Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?  But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit."  Jeremiah 2:11

 

     "That no flesh should glory in his presence."  1 Corinthians 1:29

 

     "And again, YHWH knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men..." 1 Corinthians  3:20-21

 

     The celebration of birthdays is a tradition that justifies the flesh, it is generally used as an excuse to eat foods of Babylon or do mundane and trivial activities for the sake of "amusement" that merit nothing for the world to come.  Whenever pride and the flesh rise up in our souls, Truth and Sobriety for the Word and Spirit of YHWH takes the back seat.  Although some politely choose not to celebrate birthdays, their family or friends push the issue and try to impose their will.  Perhaps some feel a need to give recognition, hoping you will return the favor?  Perhaps some want to indebt you, so you feel obligated to recognize their birthday?  Do we want recognition to come, from YHWH or from men?  It might be good to determine why some feel celebrating birthdays is of such importance?

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