Birthdays...

Did you know that the melody to Happy Birthday came from "Good Morning to You"?

from wiki:

The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" comes from the song "Good Morning to All", which was written and composed by American siblings Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893. Patty was a kindergarten principal in Louisville, Kentucky, developing various teaching methods at what is now the Little Loomhouse;Mildred was a pianist and composer. The sisters created "Good Morning to All" as a song that would be easy to be sung by young children.

The combination of melody and lyrics in "Happy Birthday to You" first appeared in print in 1912, and probably existed even earlier.

Interesting that the melody comes from a song that was originally sung for any occasion. How accurate this information is - is anyone's guess.

I've always found birthdays to be odd.

( Read more... )

Looked up Birthday online...and I found some interesting bits in Wiki, the admittedly not always completely reliable internet encyclopedia, but really is anything ever reliable on the internet?

In some historically Roman Catholic countries such as Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia and throughout South America, it is common to have a 'name day'/'Saint's day'. It is celebrated in much the same way as a birthday, but is held on the official day of a saint with the same Christian name as the birthday person; the difference being that one may look up a person's name day in a calendar, or easily remember common name days (for example, John or Mary); however in pious traditions, the two were often made to concur by giving a newborn the name of a saint celebrated on its birthday, or even the name of a feast, for example, Noel or Pascal (French for Christmas and "of Easter"); for one, Togliatti got Palmiro as first name because he was born on Palm Sunday.

I don't know how accurate this is, you'd have to tell me, but if it is...rather interesting. The idea of a name day. A bit too religious for me. I don't like authority...so religion and I have always had a difficult relationship. Although there are non-authoritian religions - they tend to be the less violent ones.

Apparently, and again according to wiki, a lot of religious faiths hate birthdays - see them as sinful or wrong for some reason from Judaism to Christianity to Islam. Weird. Not sure this is true.

I rather like this bit from wiki, which actually may explain why several religious faiths have issues with the celebration of birthdays:

Superstitious origins of celebrations

A number of possible superstitious origins for customs associated with birthday celebrations have been suggested. One source states that the tradition of birthday parties started in Europe. It was feared that evil spirits were particularly attracted to people on their birthdays and to protect them, they would be visited by friends and family, who would bring good thoughts and wishes.

Hmm...this above may be the origin of the birthday party.

There's also a mathematical problem called the The Birthday paradox" followed by The Birthday Attack. It concerns the probability of two people being born at the same time on the same day. Now why anyone would care is beyond me, let alone care enough to come up with a mathematical formula regarding it. Apparently there are some really bored and super-bright mathematicians out there with too much time on their hands. I'd try to explain it, but just reading wiki's explanation gave me a headache.

Regarding Birthday Songs?
( Birthday songs )

( birthday gemstones )

( birthday flowers )

Zodiac? Ah...my moon and sun are in Piceses - which makes me double Piceses. I can't remember my rising sign.

When you read about birth signs and zodiac, you wonder - are we defined by the day, hour, time, and moment of our birth? I don't think so. But I don't know either.

Birthdays...wonderful, angsty, weird things. ( Read more... )

Anyhow...off to relax some more, it's turned into a sunny day, so my apartment is bathed in sunshine, not rainy as foretold by the increasingly unreliable weatherpeople. May do Kidinyulani yoga tonight finally. We shall see.

Have a happy, wherever you may be.

(no subject)

A big heartfelt thank you to green_maia for the v gift of balloons and for the rec regarding The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - especially for the second, I love this book. Of course only 56% of the way through, so unless something major happens...this is currently the best book I've read in ages. Yes, even better than the Hunger Games, much much better.

Tree of Life - film review

Finished watching the film Tree of Life which is a meditation on life and death in the format of what best can be described as a visual and musical poem. Almost went to sleep during it...because it is very meditative ....sort of reassures and relaxes. Also ultimately a beautiful statement about life.

The plot is fairly simple, a middle-aged man is struggling to come to terms with his younger brother's death and the warring impulses of his mother and father inside of him, and his feelings for both, along with how he feels towards God.

Quibble is that I think Malick is a bit redundant. He seems to repeat himself at times. The film was almost too long and sort repeated itself in places, almost as if the filmmaker either fell too much in love with his own images much as a writer might with their own sentences or he feared we would not get the point. That said, Malick continues to be one the best cinematographers out there...as visual poetry goes, few can top this. And you definitely have to be in the right mood. It calmed me, took away all the stress and anxiety ....like a massage for the mind.