Cultural Differences with Birthdays

In many cultures, particular ages are seen as significant and the cause for more lavish celebrations. Such special birthdays are sometimes referred to as coming of age birthdays. Examples include sweet sixteen birthdays for girls in North America, 18th and 21st birthdays in many western cultures as marks of achieving adulthood, and Jewish girls and boys becoming bar mitzvah on their 12th and 13th birthdays respectively.

In many Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox countries, people celebrate their name day (or saint’s day) in the same way as a birthday, which falls on the official day of the saint with the same first (Christian) name.