A date which is mistakenly ‘celebrated’ as the day of birth by most of the present generation Indians who have forgotten their birth-day. They call it ‘birth-day’ and do things which they consider as celebration.
A past incident won’t come again. It is stolen by Time. But, the universe may again represent a state as if it is the time of the incident. The Sun and Moon who are the closest known time-witnesses (kAlasAkshi) to Man can come to the same relative positions to star constellations who are space-witnesses (sthalasAkshi).
I would have liked to write this article in an Indian language. Unfortunately the generation whom am addressing don’t have reading and understanding ability in any Indian language; even one’s own mother tongue. And in any case the subject matter is English celebration. But I am at a very discomfortable and inconvenient position since ‘translation’ is useless.
A Date in Calendar
A date is a number in any calendar, fixing a portion of time contained between a midnight and the next midnight. (The Indian concept is different.) Date repeats from 1 after 31 at the most. Sometimes it repeats after, 28,29 or 30! Why are there 360+ days, 12 months, specific number of dates in month, certain number of hours and minutes in a calendar?
The word calendar has its root in French calendier (list, register) and Latin calendarium (account book). This came to represent a register or account book of time. The gregorian calendar, which we presently use evolved from some errand thoughts of kings and emperors. Sometimes it existed as a 10 months calendar starting from March and ending with December. Some scholars say that calendar starting in January existed even before those starting with March. This to me looks erroneous because, Septa, Octa, Nova and Deca represents 7,8,9 and 10 respectively, and they are used as September, October, November and December which are respectively the 7th 8th 9th and 10th months. If January and February existed even before the March-starting calendar these last 4 months could not have been named so. But in short the concept of calendar should follow the movement of Sun and Moon. Otherwise any day is a new year!
While Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of gregorian calendar, Easter (resurrection) is celebrated on the Sunday following the full moon on or after the vernal equinox. (An Indian can understand this as the Ravi vaaram after the paurnami on or after Vishu). Each year therefore the Easter changes date, whereas christmas and new year remains static.
Therefore all dates of Julian, Gregorian, Armenian, Egyptian, Zoroastrian etc. calendars (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_calendars#List_of_calendars) are insignificant as far as Sun and Moon are concerned, who happen to be the custodians of Time.
The Indian design of calendar, where something starts repeating, is based on the position of Sun and Moon. The moon revolves around Earth in 27 days. Since for most of the existence of intelligent homo sapiens, the star constellations were stationary, the Indians classified them into 27 constellations around Earth. The moon while revolving around Earth, apparently moved sequentially into each of these 27 constellations. The start was fixed at Ashwini and was considered as the zero degree in the circular constellation and the end was Revati (360th degree).
While the earth rotates on its axis once, it moves by one degree around Sun and completes in 365 (approx) revolutions (read days).
The Moon revolves 12 times around earth by the time earth completes her rotation around Sun. So the circular constellations of 27 stars were again divided into 12 portions of 30 degrees called zodiac consisting of signs from Mesha to Meena. (Aries to Pisces) This was considered an year.
Indians used to celebrate their birthday when the Sun and Moon came to the same position as they were at the time of birth. But today, alas, we celebrate on some unknown day which has significance neither in our life nor for the cosmos!
Celebration
Indians knew celebration from time immemorial. We were always celebrating our life because ‘Anandam’ (loosely translated to joy. may be a combination of pleasure, joy, enjoyment, happiness, etc.) is the form of human. The conglomeration of our cells is a solidification of Anandam. Each cell as solid, each breath as air, all liquid in body as water, energy as fire and the space in and out as ether. The christians (thanks to whom we use the gregorian calendar) thinks all are “sinners”. What is more, they are waiting for someone else to get sacrificed to get them out of their sins. Therefore it is natural that their celebration, which our present generation borrowed, is crazy!
The unhealthy cake and the knife
In a birthday celebration there is a birthday cake. In its present form it is solid venom.
“No matter how many recipes you may see for "healthy" cakes, cakes aren't healthy. However, some cakes are less unhealthy than others, and if you bake your own cakes, you can make substitutions to improve their nutritional profile.” (http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/cake-unhealthy-8969.html). What do you do with this ‘unhealthy’ thing? Cut it into pieces. How do you do it? Using a sharp knife. (Although today plastic replacement have come, the act is to cut something into pieces)
In India where birthday celebrations were regular thousands of years before europeans had birth, we never cut anything. In astrology, (it was some astrologers from India who first knew that Jesus is born in bethlehem) cutting, knife, etc are bad omens. When an astrologer sees knife, sword, scissors or any cutting instrument or the act of cutting something, while he is discussing the future of an enquirer, he predicts everything as bad. Even in a common-sensical approach, I would like to see two things joining and flourishing than a thing being cut into pieces; any time of the day, month, year!
the candle, saliva and the extinguishing
And then there are these candles. What do you do with them? Exhale your breath on to those lit candles, to extinguish them!
In India we used to worship Fire as agni. The process of creating fire (agni prajvalanam) and the life of fire (till extinguished) was of great significance to us. This was part of fire-sacrifices (homa, yaga etc.) at the end of which we allowed the fire to die on his own. We used to have different kinds of lamps like pedestal, hanging etc. lighting of which was celebration for us. We never extinguished a fire by blowing into it with our breath containing our saliva! We used a hand held fan to do that. And the extinguishing was not celebration for us but the ignition was!
Loud noise and age-count
And then the birthday songs! Here is the lyrics of it, which many won’t know. And it is thunderous loud cries.
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday Dear (name)
Happy Birthday to You.
How old are you?
How old are you?
How old, How old
How old are you? (http://www.1happybirthday.com/birthday_messages_sisters.php)
Indians were prevented from saying their age on the birthday. They never asked or answered that question. The reason is simple. This life is god given. You don’t count it, especially on the day on which Sun and Moon came to the same position as they were then. The number of years one lived or left with in the life is irrelevant. On auspicious days, we would sing prayers in melodious low volume.
Happy Birthday
On an insignificant date to the birth, extinguish lit flames by spitting the breath with saliva particles into them, use a sharp blade to cut a cake made of unhealthy ingredients and count and announce the number of years one lived in this world, in a loud thunderous noise!
Janma dina of an Indian is on the day on which Sun and Moon comes to the same degree (or the moon coming to the closest possible longitude) in the cosmic circle, light a lamp with prayers to fire, have cooked boiled rice on a plantain leaf (or some leaf dependant on the customs and availability of the geographical area) which is the most healthy cereal on earth (http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-parboiled-rice-7618.html) which is joined with cow’s ghee, and mixed and squeezed with hand after prayers to the pancha pranas and eaten. The whole process is done silently with all attention to the lamp and the food.
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