I have dropped the ball, not only in maintaining this blog (obviously), but also as linguist. I wished a friend a happy birthday yesterday on Facebook, and her response was as follows:
Hungary
The way to wish someone a happy birthday in Hungary is Boldog születésnapot! Boldog just means happy, születés means birth, and nap means day. It's sometimes shortened to the less cumbersome Boldog szülinapot!
Hungarians will have birthday parties with cake and presents. The other tradition that I recall is someone comes and pulls your ear once for every year you are old (10 years old = 10 ear yanks).
The other thing of note is that they don't sing our version of the Birthday song. Instead, they sing this song, by children's song singer Judit Halász:
The chorus goes:
Boldog, boldog, boldog születésnapot
Kívánjuk, hogy legyen még sok ilyen szép napod,
Which translates to:
Happy, happy, happy birthday
We wish that you will have many other days that are as lovely.
It is also worth mentioning that you would probably not celebrate your birthday at work or at school. Hungarians get to have birthdays but also névnapok (name days). Every name is assigned a certain day of the year (sometimes more than one, if the name is popular). The daily names are generally published in name calendars or even in the daily newspapers, so pretty much everyone knows them. It is far more common to celebrate this day with colleagues and classmates. You could look yours up here.
Argentina
I don't recall getting invited to lots of parties while living in Argentina. A quick Google search told me they also do the pulling on the earlobe thing. I also remember that like in most of Latin America, a girl's 15th birthday (her quinciñera) is a very big deal. So big in fact, that the South American equivalent of John Hughes made a movie called Dulce Quinciñera on the topic.
That last bit wasn't true, obviously; I'm just trying to fill up space since I genuinely don't know much on the topic. I do know that they sing the birthday melody most Americans would be more familiar with. To wish someone a happy birthday in Spanish, you say ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! The song is a little bit different and uses the phrase ¡Qué los cumplas feliz!, though sometimes they'll also sing Cumpleaños feliz to the same melody as well.
Qatar
Someone will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but Qataris generally do not celebrate birthdays. With that said, it's a very multicultural nation, so it really depends on where you came from originally and what customs you brought with you. I did a quick Google search just for "birthdays in Qatar," and I wasn't surprised to find most of the results were expatriate forums where someone was planning a birthday party for their child.
So how did I do? Did I get most of this right, or is anything missing? And what about any of you? Do you know of any birthday traditions in other countries that are worth sharing? Feel free to leave a comment below.
So weird. Not in another language? Hmphhh. I'll expect a post to your blog regarding the best and worst birthday wishes in Hungarian, Basque, and Bermudan Cantonese in the near future...Well, I can't say for Basque (since I don't speak it) or Bermudan Cantonese (since I don't think that exists), but I can certainly go over some different birthday customs in the different countries I've lived in.
Hungary
The way to wish someone a happy birthday in Hungary is Boldog születésnapot! Boldog just means happy, születés means birth, and nap means day. It's sometimes shortened to the less cumbersome Boldog szülinapot!
Hungarians will have birthday parties with cake and presents. The other tradition that I recall is someone comes and pulls your ear once for every year you are old (10 years old = 10 ear yanks).
The other thing of note is that they don't sing our version of the Birthday song. Instead, they sing this song, by children's song singer Judit Halász:
The chorus goes:
Boldog, boldog, boldog születésnapot
Kívánjuk, hogy legyen még sok ilyen szép napod,
Which translates to:
Happy, happy, happy birthday
We wish that you will have many other days that are as lovely.
It is also worth mentioning that you would probably not celebrate your birthday at work or at school. Hungarians get to have birthdays but also névnapok (name days). Every name is assigned a certain day of the year (sometimes more than one, if the name is popular). The daily names are generally published in name calendars or even in the daily newspapers, so pretty much everyone knows them. It is far more common to celebrate this day with colleagues and classmates. You could look yours up here.
Argentina
I don't recall getting invited to lots of parties while living in Argentina. A quick Google search told me they also do the pulling on the earlobe thing. I also remember that like in most of Latin America, a girl's 15th birthday (her quinciñera) is a very big deal. So big in fact, that the South American equivalent of John Hughes made a movie called Dulce Quinciñera on the topic.
That last bit wasn't true, obviously; I'm just trying to fill up space since I genuinely don't know much on the topic. I do know that they sing the birthday melody most Americans would be more familiar with. To wish someone a happy birthday in Spanish, you say ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! The song is a little bit different and uses the phrase ¡Qué los cumplas feliz!, though sometimes they'll also sing Cumpleaños feliz to the same melody as well.
Qatar
Someone will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but Qataris generally do not celebrate birthdays. With that said, it's a very multicultural nation, so it really depends on where you came from originally and what customs you brought with you. I did a quick Google search just for "birthdays in Qatar," and I wasn't surprised to find most of the results were expatriate forums where someone was planning a birthday party for their child.
So how did I do? Did I get most of this right, or is anything missing? And what about any of you? Do you know of any birthday traditions in other countries that are worth sharing? Feel free to leave a comment below.
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