For most people, birthday is the most significant celebration of the year. However, there are beliefs according to which it is not recommended to celebrate this holiday in advance. It is worth dwelling on this prohibition in more detail.
The belief of the ancient Slavs about celebrating a birthday
This belief is deeply rooted in ancient Slavic history. The ancestors were sure that not only his relatives and close friends, but also evil spirits - Gore, Nedolya and Kruchina - congratulate the birthday man on his birthday. It was believed that these spirits sent various suffering to the birthday people, sparing neither the rich nor the poor.
To appease this evil, it was necessary to treat the spirits with something sweet. For this, various sweets should have been on the table in the hero of the occasion's room: a saucer with honey, buns, a glass of red wine, etc. The fact is that Gore, Kruchina and Nedolya, treating themselves to these sweets, spare the birthday man and leave.
Accordingly, if you start celebrating your birthday a few days earlier, then the evil spirits who appeared on the right day will be left without sweets, and this can negatively affect the birthday person - evil spirits can harm the hero of the occasion. The Slavs generally believed that in this case he risks not living up to his next birthday.
It is worth noting that blindly believing in such a legend, of course, is not worth it, but it will not be superfluous to think about it.
What if I was born on February 29?
Here, in principle, you can use the same logic with evil spirits. Better late than never, as they say. Many people celebrate their birthday either on March 1st, or even once every four years. If you connect this with the ancient Slavic belief, then in this way you can "accustom" evil spirits to the same date.
It is believed that the above case is the only one when you should postpone your birthday to a later date, and there are no other "good reasons" for postponing your personal holiday (for example, from Tuesday to the next day off)! The spirits don't approve of this either.
What do folklorists say about this?
In general, they are firmly convinced that an "early birthday" is a bad omen. Folklorists refer to the same Slavic belief, which says that it is on this day that the souls of his ancestors and evil spirits descend to the birthday man. But they also have other versions.
For example, folklorist Lydia Tuneva believes that a person's birthday is his "transition from nothingness to this world, from another world to our world …". That is why she believes that it is necessary to celebrate "only the birthday on which the person was born." According to her, celebrating this holiday in advance is unwittingly following traditional funeral rites.
