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Birthday Candles and the German Kinderfest — lesson illustration Foundation

CULTURE & HOLIDAYS

Birthday Candles and the German Kinderfest

  • 8 spell
  • 6 known
  • 4 open
  • 2 math
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CANDLES ALL DAY

In Germany in the 1700s, a child woke up on her birthday to a CAKE already ringed with burning CANDLES. The party had a name of its own: a Kinderfest, a birthday party held just for children and not for grown-ups. Adults marked their own birthdays quietly, if at all. The candles were lit before breakfast. They were meant to stay lit the whole day, and nobody was allowed to touch them until the evening MEAL.

  1. SPELL
    MEAL
  2. SPELL
    CAKE
  3. KNOWN
    What was already ringed around the cake, burning, when the child woke up on her birthday?
    Answer: CANDLES
  4. OPEN
    What would you want to do while the candles burned all day and nobody could touch them?
  5. MATH
    Suppose a child turns 7, and the cake gets one candle for each year of life plus one extra candle for the year ahead. How many candles are on the cake?
    Answer: 8

COUNTING THE CANDLES

The counting rule was simple. Each candle stood for one year the child had already lived, and one more was added for the year still to come. A child turning seven got eight flames. Some candles were made of tallow, a hard fat from animals. Richer families used BEESWAX, the wax that bees build their COMBS from. A parent replaced each STUB as it burned down. At supper the child blew out every flame in one breath and made a silent wish.

  1. SPELL
    COMBS
  2. SPELL
    STUB
  3. KNOWN
    What did richer families use for their candles instead of tallow?
    Answer: BEESWAX
  4. OPEN
    What would you wish for in the moment the candles go out?

AN OLDER STORY

People often say the custom is much older than Germany. The story goes that in ancient GREECE, worshippers carried round honey cakes lit with small candles to the TEMPLE of Artemis, the goddess of the MOON. A glowing cake would look like the full moon. It is a lovely story, but historians have found little solid evidence for it. The written TRAIL for birthday candles begins with those German parties, not with the old temples.

  1. SPELL
    TRAIL
  2. SPELL
    MOON
  3. KNOWN
    Where did the worshippers carry their glowing honey cakes?
    Answer: TEMPLE
  4. KNOWN
    In which ancient land did worshippers carry honey cakes with small candles to a temple?
    Answer: GREECE
  5. OPEN
    A glowing cake carried at night would look like the full moon. What would you carry through the dark to make it look like something else?

ONE BREATH, ONE WISH

When you lean over a cake today, you are still following those old rules: one BREATH, all the FLAMES, and a wish you keep to yourself. Telling the wish is said to break it. That is a superstition — a belief that an action changes your LUCK even though nothing really connects the two. There is one real effect, though. Researchers tested cakes that had been blown on. They found far more GERMS sitting on the icing than on a cake left alone.

  1. SPELL
    FLAMES
  2. SPELL
    BREATH
  3. KNOWN
    Telling your wish is said to spoil what?
    Answer: LUCK
  4. KNOWN
    What did researchers find far more of on the icing of a cake that had been blown on?
    Answer: GERMS
  5. OPEN
    Telling a wish is said to break it. What is something you keep to yourself on purpose?
  6. MATH
    Blowing out the candles leaves about 15 times as many germs on the icing. Suppose an untouched slice had 2 germs on it. How many would the blown-on slice have?
    Answer: 30

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