How Children Celebrate Their Birthdays in England

∷胡玫 注

作者照片

In Western cultures, all children celebrate their birthdays, signi ficant or un-signi ficant, with a birthday party, which can be held at the child’s own home or in a public place, such as a cinema or a park. A cake,covered with the same number of candles as the child’s age, is brought to the birthday girl/boy and all the guests will sing the Happy Birthday song.After making a special birthday wish for the forthcoming year, the child will blow the candles out and if all the candles are blown out at once, the wish is supposed to become true. This tradition is practised in many different cultures, and is believed to be originated from ancient Greek, where candles were burnt as offerings to the gods and candles placed on round cakes were tributes to the Greek Moon Goddess,1. tribute:（表示敬意的）礼物，行为；Artemis: 阿尔忒弥斯，希腊神话中月亮女神的象征。Artemis, as the round cake symbolised the moon.

In England, birthday parties are often celebrated with colourful decorations, such as banners and balloons. The type of food provided is almost always unhealthy, and usually consists of an abundance of sweets and sugary snacks in addition to the birthday cake.2. an abundance of: 丰富的，大量的；sugary snack: 含糖多的零食，如巧克力、糕点等。Young children usually have a theme to their parties, usually based around playing and entertainment. Parents often hire entertainment, such as magicians, for their children to entertain their guests in their own home. This entertainment often corresponds with the theme of the party, which can range from a dinosaur theme to a general fancy dress theme.3. correspond with: 符合，一致；fancy dress: 奇装异服。

中国人给孩子过生日，传统上是给他做碗鸡蛋面，希望孩子能像长长的面条一样长寿。后来受到西方文化的影响，家长们也开始为过生日的孩子买生日蛋糕，在烛光下为他们唱生日快乐歌，而且还很可能会全家大餐一顿。可是这种生日仍然不如英国孩子的生日过得那么丰富多彩，回味无穷。下面让我们听听在英国剑桥出生并长大的陈珞瑛（Luoying Chen）讲——

My first party, in my recollection, was in my first school year when I was 6, and my mother had booked a party in a children’s indoor activity and entertainment centre called “Planet Zoom”—a large building designed for parties and play for children, in which you can play on slides and bouncy castles and in mazes and plastic ball pits.4. in my recollection: 在我的印象中，在我的记忆中；bouncy castle: 气模城堡；plastic ball pit: 塑料球池。After playing, there are rooms where the party can go and eat food prepared by the chefs at Planet Zoom. I had invited 11 classmates to my party, and it was one of the fondest5. fond: 喜欢的，fondest是最高级形式。memories from my childhood.Surprisingly, however, the most memorable part of the day was not at the party itself, but at home where my mother and I unwrapped the large bunch of presents I had received.6. unwrap: 拆开，打开（礼物等）；bunch: 串，束，常用“a bunch of”表示“一大堆、很多”。This part of the birthday party hosting experience is by far one of the best and, I suspect, is an important reason for children having birthday parties.Presents play a key role for children in birthday parties, as without them, they might start to feel as if their parents cared less than those of the children receiving presents, and therefore they might feel upset and resentful. As years go on, gifts become more expensive and extravagant, and children these days no longer appreciate the mere gesture of gift giving but rather they expect meaningful or valuable presents and are finicky7. finicky: 过分挑剔的，过分讲究的。on what they want to receive.

To attend birthday parties, it is customary8. customary: 习惯的，惯常的，合乎（或基于）习俗的。for the guests to bring birthday presents. This usually poses a problem9. pose a problem: 带来困扰，造成问题。for most people, as not only do they have to consider what the birthday person wants or needs, but what the other people have bought and how much money they are willing to spend without seeming too cheap10. cheap: 小气的。. Popular presents include gift cards11. gift card: 礼品卡，一种可在某一商家使用的购物卡。for well known stores, jewellery,DVDs, CDs etc. Generally, clothing such as socks or underwear are not well received, and the limited choice for suitable presents leads to people getting very similar things each year. The guests themselves often also receive gifts from the host as a token12. token: 象征，标志。of gratitude for their presence at the party. This is either seen in a “Thank You” card or a party bag—usually a plastic bag full of sweets, novelty plastic toys, stationery or stickers.13. party bag: 聚会袋，参加聚会的客人离开时得到的小袋子，里面一般装有糖果和小礼物；stationery:文具用品；sticker: 粘贴画片。When I was a little child, I always gave out party bags to my guests as I felt bad for only taking gifts without returning the favour. As an extra touch, I would always put in a couple of tattoo stickers from China, as I knew no one else had them and they were always popular with my friends.14. extra touch: 额外特色；tattoo sticker: （浸湿后贴在身上可以留下文身图案的）文身贴。I hope their parents didn’t think I was encouraging them into a life of crime and real tattoos.

As they get older, children host more creative and expensive parties. Some parties are speci fically planned so that the guests can make little trinkets15. trinket: 小玩意儿。to take home with them. An example of this sort of party is a pottery party, held in a pottery shop or art studio.16. pottery party: 制陶聚会；art studio: 艺术工作坊。In my life of 15 years I have been invited to two pottery parties and I remember both occasions very fondly17. fondly: 深情地。. The first was when I was eight and my best friend had invited myself and nine other girls to a small pottery shop near the city centre. The shop owner had set up a large table at the back where we were to paint the plain white pieces of pottery that we had picked. I had chosen a bear, and after my bear was painted it was collected along with the other painted pieces of pottery to be glazed18. glaze：给……上釉，给……上光。. As glazing took quite some time, they were delivered to my best friend’s home a week later for her to hand out. An alternative to this is to actually make the pottery itself in a pottery studio. Upon arrival, we were taught how to use a potter’s wheel19. a potter’s wheel: （制陶用的）陶轮。and ultimately make bowls and vases ourselves. This technique is the art of using a wheel which spins rapidly while the solid ball of soft clay is pressed, squeezed and pulled gently upwards and outwards into the shape of a bowl.20. 这项技术是一门使用陶轮的艺术：随着陶轮快速旋转，受到旋转时离心力向上和向外的挤压和牵引，使软黏土的毛坯成型。While people went up one by one to make their bowl, the others sculpted the clay by hand and made their own unique candle holders21. candle holder: 蜡烛台。. Once everything was made, they were taken away to be fired in the large kiln and we received them three weeks later.

For older children, another popular party choice is a cinema trip, often accompanied with a meal at a nearby fast food restaurant or chain restaurant.These restaurants often anticipate these and offer party deals22. party deal: 聚会套餐。where large tables can be booked and the waiters and waitresses will bring out a birthday cake and sing to the birthday child. The film is usually a comedy aimed for children or youths, as both boys and girls appreciate comedies more readily than they do with romantic films.23. 相比浪漫爱情片，少男少女们更乐意看喜剧片。基于这一点，播放的电影通常是针对儿童和年轻人的喜剧片。Horror movies do not bode well24. bode well: 兆头好，有利。with young children, or their parents. I was lucky enough to have had two such parties when I was younger: one when I was seven, the other when I was nine, both at the cinema in Cambridge city centre. I am grateful towards my parents for allowing me to invite so many children for both a film viewing25. film viewing: 看电影。and a meal. Nowadays, these sorts of parties are becoming increasingly common with younger and younger children. As they get older, such frivolous parties are less desirable and more cool parties such as sleepovers and house parties are hosted.26. frivolous: 嬉笑打闹，没有正经；sleepover: （儿童或年轻人在朋友家举办的）过夜聚会；house party: 家里聚会。

For teenager birthday parties, sleepovers are common occurrences amongst girls as they allow time to bond and become closer with their friends in a comforting and comfy environment.27. bond: 建立感情，加强关系；comforting and comfy: 温馨舒适的。They are less common amongst younger children, who can become upset when separated from their parents for the night. Although sleepovers happen frequently throughout the year, the birthday sleepovers are made special by the increased number of guests, the higher quality of snacks and entertainment and the boosted excitement levels amongst the girls. Unlike with girls, boys’ sleepovers become less common as they become more mature, because sleepovers may be seen as feminine or gay. Boys are known to be less likely to host a birthday party; if they do, the two most common choices are a house party or a trip to the cinema.

House parties are casual parties in the birthday person’s own home, and are very simple with usually only music and food provided. This means the guests, usually teenagers aged 15 and over, find their own entertainment through chatting or dancing.Depending on their age, parents may leave the house or stay in a separate part of the house to avoid any embarrassment, but they will set out rules such as a ban on smoking and drinking alcohol. Once children reach the age of 16, house parties are usually very large and loud affairs with many guests that will leave a very large mess28. a very large mess: 一片狼藉。. Regardless, they are very common as the sixteenth birthday is believed to be a special and signi ficant birthday, and therefore allowances can be made by parents to commemorate that one year.29. regardless: 不管怎样；allowance: 定期补贴，津贴。

Birthday parties are a great boost to any child’s self-esteem.30. boost: 促进，提升；selfesteem: 自尊心。Their birthday is the one day where it is all about themselves and they cannot feel guilty for believing so. Making them feel like kings (or queens) for the day is a gift which they will carry on with them for the rest of their childhood years, hopefully without becoming big headed or egotistic.31. big headed: 自高自大；egotistic: 唯我独尊。