Odd birthday tradition

[Bill Johnson]

My father was always the first person to interact with us the minute we woke on our birthay, and quite often BEFORE we woke.
That interaction was to get butter smeared on your nose!
In later years, I Iearned that tradition was started in Ireland.
Still think that was odd

 

[Beth Gallagher]

I had never heard of that tradition, Bill. So of course I had to look it up. Apparently it's a fairly common tradition in some areas. I read that the superstition is that it is done to make the birthday person "too slippery" for bad luck, ensuring a fortunate year ahead. Did you keep the tradition with your children?

 

[Bill Johnson]

I had never heard of that tradition, Bill. So of course I had to look it up. Apparently it's a fairly common tradition in some areas. I read that the superstition is that it is done to make the birthday person "too slippery" for bad luck, ensuring a fortunate year ahead. Did you keep the tradition with your children?

My kids were unaware of that tradition until I told them.
They thought I was kidding. They thought that was a dumb
Tradition.
They say our family was quirky enough without bringing that in.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

There isn't anything wrong with being quirky...

 

[Beth Gallagher]

There isn't anything wrong with being quirky...

Speaking of quirky, I was wondering if you have to leave the butter on your nose all year so the bad stuff continues to slide off.

 

[John Brunner]

My mother was British, and I've never heard of that tradition. If the Scots had done it, odds are greater she would have said something disparaging. I searched on "Weird Birthday Traditions" just to add something to the thread, and the AI summary gave the example of Canadians doing the butter on the nose thing. So does India.

In other countries (like Denmark and Spain), they tug on your ear, once for each year of age. (30 years old = 30 ear tugs.) In Argentina, a bunch of people grab your ear and simultaneously pull as they sing you a birthday song. Other countries have some variation on the ear-tugging thing. It all reminds me of Carol Burnett.

I don't recall any friends doing odd things for their birthdays. That includes a Peruvian friend who put an egg under her pillow when she and her husband were trying to conceive. The only different thing was when she had written her birthday down using the International date standard of Day/Month/Year, so on November 4 they threw her a true surprise party...her birthday was April 11.

 

[Mary Stetler]

But where did birthday spankings come from, one for each year and a pinch to grow an inch. Or was my family the only one that did it?