I’m a hobby baker, and when I first moved to Germany I worked as an English teacher.
One Monday I brought in some cookies I'd made and left them in the break room for everyone
to eat. But then the strangest thing started happening.
Throughout the day people kept coming up to me and wishing me a happy birthday.
And I was like, it's not my birthday.
Turns out, in Germany when it's your birthday, it's your job to bring in cookies or cake
or some other little treat for your co-workers to eat, not the other way around, that they
all chip in and buy you a cake.
What's up with that?
Hey everyone! I'm Dana and you're watching Wanted an Adventure Living Abroad.
So in Germany we've established that it's the birthday boy or girl's job to bring in
treats for their co-workers. But there's more.
Whereas in America when you go out with all of your friends to celebrate your birthday,
they usually chip in and buy your meal, right?
Well in Germany it's the other way around.
In Germany, you go out with your friends to celebrate your birthday, the party is about you,
and you're expected to either pick up the whole tab or at least the first round
of drinks is on you. At least that first round.
Another difference is there's no such thing as happy early birthday here in Germany.
Even when I lived back in America and was geographically closer
to my friends and family, there were still times when
it just didn't work for us to celebrate my birthday on my actual birth day.
Sometimes we celebrated the weekend before, or sometimes I had a few separate celebrations.
One with my parents and one with my friends. And that was okay. But here in Germany,
that would never fly.
As far as the Germans are concerned, it ain't your birthday until it's your birthday.
It could be 11:59 p.m. on the night of their birthday, you do not wish a German happy birthday
or happy early birthday because they will set you straight telling you that it's not
their birthday yet.
I guess to Germans it's something like counting your chickens before they've hatched.
It's just bad luck to wish a person happy birthday before their birthday is actually there.
Something else that I've noticed is that having a birthday cake for your birthday party isn't
such a big deal here like it is in America. Yes, you should bring cookies or cakes or
something for your co-workers, but your birthday party is a different matter.
A few months after I met Mr. German Man, he had a birthday and I was invited to his party.
And on the morning of, his mom made a German-style cheesecake. And I just assumed that this was
going to be the cake for the birthday party in the evening. And then around 2 p.m. she
cut into the cake and served everyone a piece, and by 3 p.m. the cake was more than half
gone, and I was baffled. What were we going to do for the party?
"Shouldn't we go to the store and buy another cake?" I asked him all concerned.
Um, no, why would we do that?
Um, because we just ate the freaking birthday cake, that's why!
We didn't go to the store, and we didn't buy a cake, and nobody at his birthday party seemed
concerned except for me.
It took me four more German birthday parties, which translates into four evenings of being
very disappointed after I was craving birthday cake all day, and then there was none, to
finally figure out that the Germans just aren't into birthday cake like the Americans are.
To this day I still hold out hope every time I go to a birthday party here in Germany that
there will be a cake. But unless it's an American's party, there never is.
And as far as the cakes go that the co-workers bring into the office, they don't really quench
that craving either because they're not your typical American sheet cakes covered in that
buttery--oh my goodness--frosting. They're these crumb cakes or coffee cakes, some bundt cakes.
Cakes that go really well with coffee, which is what the Germans like to do, combine
cake with coffee.
Don't get me wrong, these are great cakes. But they don't satisfy that
craving that I have for American birthday cake.
But the good news is, as I said, I'm a hobby baker, so I can make my own cake.
So my question for you is what kind of birthday traditions or superstitions have you seen
throughout the world?
Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that like button.
Until next time, auf Wiedersehen.
Zum Geburtstag viel Glück! Zum Geburtstag viel Glück!
Zum Geburtstag alles Gute Zum Geburtstag viel Glück!
Happy Birthday!