The candles flicker, everyone looks at the cake, and the birthday child closes their eyes and blows them out. But why, exactly? One interpretation traces the custom back to ancient Greece and the goddess Artemis: round cakes are said to have represented the moon, the candles its light, and the smoke is said to have carried people’s prayers to the gods. However, the custom isn’t documented until much later—around 1800, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe describes a birthday cake with burning candles.
Every child knows it. You jump out of bed excitedly, looking forward to presents and, of course, the delicious cake with candles already lit. Amidst all the hustle and anticipation, there's a moment of silence. Will the birthday child manage to blow out the candles in one go? What is considered an indispensable birthday ritual today has a legendary history. Several stories and myths surround this glowing ritual. Where the idea of the birthday candle really comes from is still not entirely clear today.
The first traces lead to ancient Greece
Some sources trace the origin of birthday candles to ancient Greece. One theory links them to the goddess Artemis. In Greek mythology, she is one of the twelve major Olympian gods. She is the daughter of Zeus and the goddess of the hunt, wild animals, virginity, and the moon. Some traditions state that the Greeks placed round cakes with candles in front of the temple of Artemis. The cake was meant to represent the moon, and the candles, the moon’s light. The smoke was seen as a medium that carried people’s wishes upward to the gods. According to some ritual scholars, ancient rituals served to Goodwill of the Gods to obtain. The connection to today's birthday candle is certainly not certain. The cakes were not birthday cakes as we understand them today, but part of a religious ritual.
First mention by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Traditions closer to our own today are from the 18th and 19th centuries. Folk-Lore Journal from the year 1883. It describes that in Württemberg and Switzerland, each candle represented one year of life. However, it states that the candles should be blown out one after another, which differs from our modern understanding.
Are candles on a cake dangerous?
In 2017, there was media attention surrounding the popular birthday ritual. The world headlined: „How blowing out the candles contaminates the birthday cake“. Also The time took up the topic. In doing so, they referred to a study by a research team at Clemson University in South Carolina. In that study, they found that blowing out the candles results in an average of 1,400 % more bacteria landing on the cake than without this popular ritual. Anyone considering using LEDs or similar alternatives instead of traditional candles can breathe a sigh of relief. The research team gave the all-clear: The study primarily shows that bacteria can be transmitted, not that birthday cakes automatically become dangerous as a result.
