Also called blowing out the candles, Lebenslicht, light of life
Make a silent wish and blow out all the candles on your birthday cake in one breath; if they all go out, the wish comes true. The custom took shape at German children's birthdays in the 1700s.
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Take care: Keep hair, sleeves and paper decorations away from the flames, and have an adult nearby for young children. Remove candles before cutting.
At a Kinderfest the child woke to a cake ringed with candles, one per year plus a Lebenslicht for the year ahead. The candles were kept burning all day and replaced as they burned down, then blown out after the evening meal with a wish.
Uses: cake, candles, a central light of life
At the 1746 birthday of Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf, a guest described a cake as big as any oven could bake, with holes cut for a candle for each of his years and one in the middle. It is one of the earliest clear descriptions of birthday candles.
Uses: very large cake, candles
Many articles say Greeks offered round, candle-lit cakes to the moon goddess Artemis, and that this is where birthday candles began. Round cakes for Artemis are attested, but no source connects them to birthday wishes, so the link is best called a story.
Birthday cakes with candles are clearly recorded in 18th-century Germany. At a Kinderfest, a child's birthday party, the cake held one candle for each year plus a light of life, sometimes kept burning through the day. In 1746 a guest at the birthday of Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, leader of the Moravian Church, described a huge cake with a candle for every year.
The custom crossed to Britain and America in the 19th century, and the 'Happy Birthday' song, set to an 1893 melody, became the standard cue for the wish. The idea that the smoke carries the wish upward is a common modern explanation, not an old documented belief. The often-told Artemis origin is unproven. What is certain is that the silent wish and the one-breath rule are now nearly universal.
Write a wish on a dried bay leaf and burn it so the smoke carries it off. The writing-and-burning form is modern; reading burning laurel for omens goes back to ancient Greece and Rome.
Make a wish and blow the white seed head of a dandelion; if every seed flies in one breath, the wish is said to come true. The same puffs were once counted to tell the time or ask about love.
Two people each hold one arm of a dried bird's wishbone, make a silent wish and pull; whoever gets the larger piece is said to have their wish granted. It is best known from the American Thanksgiving turkey.
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