Why do we have candles on birthday cakes?

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It's a bit sad when the number of candles on your birthday cake represents decades instead of years. With all those years behind you, have you ever wondered - why the candles? Then today is your lucky day.

Artemis

It turns out there are a few potential reasons why we light candles on birthday cakes, but the tradition seems to stem back to Ancient Greece. The Greeks would offer up round cakes to the moon goddess Artemis, adorned with lit candles to make them appear more moon-like. What this has to do with birthdays, I'm not sure; maybe it just sparked a whole cake-candle trend.

In old world Germany, people used to place a candle on their cakes to symbolize 'the light of life'. This is closer to the modern birthday way, celebrating time passed, with happy wishes for the future.

The tradition of having a party on your birthday stems back to a time when people thought they were vulnerable to attacks from evil spirits on the anniversary of their birth, so they would gather together in large numbers, so the ghoulies were less likely to approach. Perhaps that's why the cakes were made - to feed the hungry spirit-warders.

Some cultures believe the smoke from the candles will either ward off evil spirits or carry their wishes up to the gods. Some believe your wish will come true only if you blow them all out in one puff, while others will claim the number of candles left burning correlates to the number of boy/girlfriends the birthday person is in relations with at the time. Or was that just my family?

Candles feature pretty highly in the world of traditions - think the lighting of the menorah for the Jewish holiday of Hannukah, or the lighting of votive candles in the Catholic church - but whatever the religious reason, I reckon this can be put down to one basic fact: people love fire. Don't tell you toddler that though, you might give him ideas.

Mooning around

This week's Why is a real-life one, as in it came from the mouth of an actual child. On a field trip with my toddler's Playcentre, some kids were looking up at the moon, which was as clear as a French-manicured fingernail against the blue sky. Why can you sometimes see the moon during the day? asked one small, inquisitive being. Like the moon appearing from behind the clouds on a dark night, all will be revealed next week.