Birthdays

Birthdays in America. It's a simple celebration outside of a child's birthday party. There's a cake, you sing "Happy Birthday", and the person with the birthday receives the gifts. In school, the class will sing and cupcakes will be handed out. A total of 15 minutes, if you include eating the cake.

In Israel, the songs take 15 mintues just to sing. While most Israelis are familiar with the copyrighted tune of "Happy Birthday," it is not one of the songs that is included in the sing-a-long. It starts with "HaYom Yom Huledet" (Today is Your Birthday), an upbeat melody and continues with "Yom Huledet Chagigah Lachmedet" (A Nice Birthday Celebration).  There are a few other songs that are included for kids (but the titles sound stupid in English. "What a Happy Day") The singing ends with "Where is the Cake?" It sounds like a greedy song, but it's fun to sing. The translation of the words are "There no celebration without cake so where is the cake?" Everysong that is sung has a happy tune associated with it. People clap and bang on tables or shake tambourines. The birthday girl/boy wears a crown, or a lei, or sits in a special chair to signify that it's their birthday.

Recently at the kindergarten, we've celebrated 2 birthdays. A boy turned 2. And a girl tunred 1. It is absolutely adorable seeing the kids with their families. (The only thing is that afterwards the child becomes confused on why mommy was in school and now she's not there).  The parents are good sports and dance with kids. You can truly see the love in the mothers' eyes when they are with their children and you can't help but smile.

There was another birthday a few ago also. Israel turned 64 on Yom Ha"atzmaut. What really surprised me here was the Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day) literally goes into Independence day. On Yom HaZicharon, many stores were closed and schools were released early. At 11:00am the city was silent for a full 2 minutes. No movements. No horns. Just the wind and the birds. It looked like a living museum. Cars stopped in the middle of the road. People stopped in the center of the crosswalk. Conversations halted. The country was quiet. There was a ceremony at Har Herzel and because we live so close to it, we walked there. I think all of Jerusalem and the surrounding cities were there. Luckily it's a big place, though the downside is we couldn't find where the actual ceremony was. Just the speakers that were hung on the trees throughout the cemetery.

For Yom Ha'atzmaut, the whole country was decorated in blue and white. Flags hung from buildings and waved hello in the breeze. Flags were connected to cars, to balconies, and to trees. Mostly everyone was wearing blue and white to show their pride for Israel. The evening of Yom Ha'atzmaut we watched a celebration that took place at Har Herzel. It was similar to every other celebration. Bands, dancing, army personnel. One of the personnel from the army has been invited to come since anyone can remember. He's now in his 80s and still in the army. At the end, they shot fireworks into the air and because the apartment is so close, we could see the show. (No, not as good as Needham.) With a celebratory barbeque (and parks that looked like a dump everywhere in the country. Literally trash everywhere. It was disgusting) Israelis celebrated the 64th year of the establishment of Israel.

pictures!