Peasants and birthdays

[Brian G Turner]

Fashions might have changed at different times, but my understanding was that babies were named very quickly, precisely for this reason. God wouldn't let them into Heaven unless they were baptised and to be baptised, they had to have a name.

Hmm, it must have been pre-Christian periods I was reading about.

[/QUOTE]

I would imagine that birthdays would have been celebrated around Saint's days

I figure that was probably the case - if it was St Chronicles' day, there's a good chance of being named Chronicles, and hence whenever it was St Chronicles' feast day those with the name would have an extra celebration.

Though I suspect this tradition may be limited to how Catholic the country was, and would be thrown into chaos by the gloomy Protestants who effectively banned many festivals and celebrations the Catholics had observed.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

You don't need to worry about that, i don't think; it sounds like yours is before the reformation. St. Chron's day sounds good.

 

[Peter Graham]

and hence whenever it was St Chronicles' feast day those with the name would have an extra celebration.

Possibly, but I suspect that the tradition of making a fuss on one's birthday is much more of a recent phenomenon. By the later medieval period, churches were keeping fairly good records of baptisms and I'd guess that the baptism (being the day on which you enter God's family) was more important than the day of birth.

I suspect that our habits of celebrating birthdays but often having no idea of the day on which we were baptised (assuming we were baptised at all) or not celebrating every religious festival would have seemed equally odd to our ancestors.

Regards,

Peter