Birthdays

Why do we celebrate birthdays? Not that there’s anything wrong with celebrating birthdays.

But why a day, specifically? Why don’t we usually celebrate a birth week, or birth month, or a birth hour, or birth minute?

There is clearly something particular about the conjunction between, on the one hand, the time of year that a person was born, and, on the other hand, a day.

Both are shout-outs to periodic events. A year is the time it takes the Earth to rotate once about the Sun. A day is the time it takes the Earth to rotate once about its own axis.

But why not the time it takes the Moon to circle once about the Earth? What is it about days and years that makes us fit them together hand and glove, without really giving the matter much thought?

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