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Happy Birthday!! Posted by on Jan 11, 2012 in Culture, English Language, English Vocabulary

Tomorrow is my birthday. I am quite excited because I will be turning 32, which sounds much better than 31 did. I think it might be the fact that 32 is an even number that makes it sound enticing.

So what will I be doing for my birthday? On the day itself I will be having a small celebration at home, eating some food that I enjoy, opening presents and of course eating a birthday cake.

However, since my birthday is during the week, the big celebration will be on Saturday. On Saturday, I will be going to the city center with a group of friends to eat dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

There is a chance that my friends will sing a happy birthday song to me. The traditional birthday song sounds like this:

(You can also replace the third line so it says “Happy Birthday dear <name of the birthday person>”)

While that version is very nice, I quite prefer the version that we used to sing when we were in elementary school. It had the same melody as the song above but the lyrics were slightly different:

Happy birthday to you.

You live in a zoo.

You look like a monkey and smell like one too!

Usually, right before singing the birthday song a cake is brought out. The cake will often have lit candles on it. When you are younger there tends to be one candle for every year old that you are, so 8 candles for an 8-year old. Clearly the older you get the more of a fire hazard this becomes!

After singing the birthday song, the birthday girl or guy gets to make a wish and blow out all the candles. If they manage to blow out all of the candles with just one breath then it is thought that their wish will come true.

What birthday traditions do you have?

Some birthday related phrases for you to use:

  • When is your birthday?
  • My birthday is on January 12th 1980.
  • How are you celebrating?
  • I am having a party.
  • I am going dancing.
  • I am going out to eat with my friends.
  • Happy Birthday!
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