When your birthday falls smack dab in the middle of lent, every year

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AnneElizabeth

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What do you do? How do you handle it?
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Do you skip out on the cake and big meal, or do you have your day with its celebration and try and make up for it somehow?   How do you handle your birthday being in the middle of lent?
Just wondering what other people do about it.
 
AnneElizabeth said:
What do you do? How do you handle it?
Code: 
Do you skip out on the cake and big meal, or do you have your day with its celebration and try and make up for it somehow?   How do you handle your birthday being in the middle of lent?
Just wondering what other people do about it.
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My birthday is 23 March and I usually don’t have a big celebration for my birthday anyway so it’s not a big deal for me. I think that is a good question though
 
My sister-in-law’s birthday is March 1… Ash Wednesday this year. The family just moved the celebration to the following Sunday. Same thing we do with my husband and son who are also March babies whose birthdays always fall in Lent.
 
AnneElizabeth said:
Do you skip out on the cake and big meal, or do you have your day with its celebration and try and make up for it somehow?
Click to expand...
I’m not understanding why you would need to make up for celebrating?

You have no need to make up for celebrating a birthday. Lenten sacrifices are voluntary. They need not override birthdays or other occasions.
 
You can have a cake and a nice meal on your birthday. Few Catholics wear sackcloth and ashes every day during Lent. Now, if you were planning on hiring a full orchestra and having a seven course banquet, you might want to consult your pastor.
 
We have a birthday during lent in my family. Sometimes it even falls on Friday. Any celebrating is moved to Sunday. Some years we go bigger than others.

Peace,
B
 
My mom’s birthday is March 25th. It fell on Good Friday last year and 12 years ago. I think we just celebrate it a few weeks later in that case…or a few days after Easter.

I’m lucky to be a January baby…no lent issues for me…but youngest niece’s birthday is 4 days before Easter this year…during holy week.
 
One of our kiddos has a Lenten birthday. We just celebrate on the preceding or following Sunday.
 
I have one child who has a birthday during Lent most years. We tend generally relax our ordinary Lenten discipline for that day. This year his birthday is on Good Friday, so we’ll wait until Easter week to celebrate.
 
AnneElizabeth said:
What do you do? How do you handle it?
Code: 
Do you skip out on the cake and big meal, or do you have your day with its celebration and try and make up for it somehow?   How do you handle your birthday being in the middle of lent?
Just wondering what other people do about it.
Click to expand...
Unless it’s in ash wed or good Friday (which hasn’t been the case) my family always make exceptions for birthdays. Lenten observances are not mandatory. Breaking it on a birthday seems perfectly reasonable to me. Except for no meat on Fridays; I wouldn’t break that during lent if I was in the US.
 
Consider it a blessing. My birthday is on the feast day of the Beheading of St John the Forerunner. It is a strict fast.
Birthday celebrations are not a particularly christians tradition because its focus is egocentric. The christian tradition is to celebrate the feast day of your name saint in which you generally provide small gifts of sweets for others. Because the focus is on someone glorified by God it is Cbristocentric because it celebrates someone who has put on Christ
 
ShrodingersCat said:
Unless it’s in ash wed or good Friday (which hasn’t been the case) my family always make exceptions for birthdays. Lenten observances are not mandatory. Breaking it on a birthday seems perfectly reasonable to me. Except for no meat on Fridays; I wouldn’t break that during lent if I was in the US.
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This is essentially my approach. The Husband’s birthday is always during Lent. We celebrate anyway. When the day falls on Ash Wednesday or any Friday, I maintain the fast (if applicable) and abstinence but in ways that don’t impact him. The Husband isn’t Catholic so I’m reluctant to impose the observances of my faith on him on his birthday.

That said, I don’t know what we’ll do if (when?) his birthday falls on Good Friday—it hasn’t happened yet. :hmmm:
 
1ke said:
I’m not understanding why you would need to make up for celebrating?

You have no need to make up for celebrating a birthday. Lenten sacrifices are voluntary. They need not override birthdays or other occasions.
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Lenten season calls for fasting. You certainly can celebrate- get birthday greetings, cards, calls well wishing, but when it comes to eating, drinking type celebrating… does that get left out, or how does the church expect them to be handled?
 
prodromos said:
Consider it a blessing. My birthday is on the feast day of the Beheading of St John the Forerunner. It is a strict fast.
Birthday celebrations are not a particularly christians tradition because its focus is egocentric. The christian tradition is to celebrate the feast day of your name saint in which you generally provide small gifts of sweets for others. Because the focus is on someone glorified by God it is Cbristocentric because it celebrates someone who has put on Christ
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I had heard this before, about the birthdays being egocentric- I thought this was more of a Jehovah Witness idea, but it was also something I considered when I had my conversion and after reading much Scripture. … anyway that is part of the reason why I’m asking.

There is also the part where the family insists on celebrating as it is’ the thing’ that is done, culturally, at least in the family. As a mother, do you not participate in eating cake with your child on their birthday? Seems ‘off’ and cold.
 
My birthdays sometimes falls during Lent or the Easter Triduum.
If it falls on a Lenten day I celebrate it normally with cake and some family time, but its not a full blown out party with dancing, decorations, and music (aside from the happy birthday song).
If it falls on Holy Thursday I celebrate it before the evening (mass).
If it falls on Good Friday I usually transfer it to Holy Thursday and if it falls on Holy Saturday I transfer the celebration to Easter Sunday.
 
AnneElizabeth said:
Lenten season calls for fasting. You certainly can celebrate- get birthday greetings, cards, calls well wishing, but when it comes to eating, drinking type celebrating… does that get left out, or how does the church expect them to be handled?
Click to expand...
Well in the US at least there’s only two Lenten days with required fasting so it’s generally a non-issue.
 
Mrs_V said:
One of our kiddos has a Lenten birthday. We just celebrate on the preceding or following Sunday.
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This is a very sensible suggestion, given that the disciplines of fasting and abstinence are not in effect on Sundays.

(Besides, if children below 14 are in question, the rules are not applicable. Abstinence obtains from the age of 14, and fasting from 18, if I’m not mistaken.) 🙂
 
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