Merely for my own curiousity - a poll

[mamadeb]

My own birthday is in November, so this is just in the spirit of inquiry. I just want to know who else has the candle custom I have. (For the record, we always did n+1)



[Poll #1365896]

Comments

[jdemorae.livejournal.com]

As things worked out in my family, we have literally over half the family birthdays in one month: July (three of them on the same day!) So once the numbers got absurd, we did the birthdays in a batch: one big cake, with everybody's names, and candles all along the edge, the size of the cake determining the number of candles.

It was kind of sad as a kid, not having a special birthday cake--going to other kids' parties I learned about things like the trick candles (which never seemed funny to me), the number-shaped candles, having a special design on the cake. But the good thing was we always had an ice cream cake with chocolate crunchies. And I always got the chocolate ice cream parts the chocolate ice cream haters didn't want, in trade for my vanilla slice. ;)

And that's from the Irish Catholic side (grandparents are Irish immigrants). My Jewish stepmom did the n+1 candles when my b-day came around and I was visiting. Homemade cake, too, with chocolate frosting. Yum!