The life of King Charles III began, that is, it was born – November 14, 1948. You would think that would also make his birthday November 14th.
And yet: on Saturday, some 1,400 soldiers paraded in front of St. James's Park in the heart of London, marching in formation and waving banners in celebration of the British monarch's “official birthday.”
Transposing a November birthday into mid-June is not a run-of-the-mill rounding error, in the same way that a friend might plan drinks for a Friday if her birthday fell on a Wednesday. Rather, Charles was doing what his royal ancestors have done for more than a century: exercising his divine right to celebrate his birthday while the sun shines.
“It was Edward VII who came up with the idea of 'Well, let's celebrate the monarch's birthday when the weather is nice,'” said royal biographer Robert Hardman, referring to Britain's king from 1901 to 1910. “Because monarchs have a habit of being born in the winter months, when everything is a little gray.”
Like Charles, a true Scorpio king, Edward came into the world in the damp cold of an English November. So to improve the odds of pleasant weather for Trooping the Colour, the elaborate military parade marking the monarch's birthday, he celebrated his official birthday in May or June throughout his reign.
The summer birthday exchange: it's fit for a king. Is it right for you?
For Roberto Soto III, the answer was yes. Soto, a Brooklyn DJ known to his friends and on flyers as Mamma, spent the day he turned 26 moving all his things out of his apartment and putting them in a storage unit. “My birthday day “It was actually very terrible,” he recalls. At the time, money was tight and he didn't get along very well with several close friends. However, six months later, things were decidedly looking up.
“I had just gotten a new job and things were going very well in my life,” he said. “And then I thought, 'Wait, my half-birthday is coming up: that could be fun.'”
So she reorganized a bimonthly dance party and comedy show she hosts in Bushwick, took down the cover and renamed the event “A Very Mamma Half-Birthday.” The party featured DJ sets playing Miami bass, Baltimore club, 2000s pop and Beyoncé.
Vastly improved living circumstances aside, Soto said he felt like he was able to enjoy himself more simply because the day wasn't as burdened with expectations.
“With your birthday“Birthdays, I feel like there's a lot of pressure,” she said. A half-birthday, on the other hand, “is just another day.”
To be clear, you can throw a party whenever you want. But in terms of pure getting things done for you, no other occasion comes close to offering the indulgent success of a birthday.
And not all birthdays are the same. Ask anyone who shares one with Jesus of Nazareth (December 25) or the year itself (January 1). Friends are often out of town, and outdoor celebrations are a fail, not to mention individual gifts that do double duty as “matching” gifts.
Perhaps that's why out-of-date birthday celebrations aren't the niche idea many hosts might assume them to be. According to digital invitation service Partiful, in the past 12 months, more than 40,000 people said they were going to events with “half-birthday” or “non-birthday” in the name.
Some notable non-birthdays on the platform: Next month, an 8½-year-old whose Dec. 23 birthday requires him to always share the stage with Christmas will have a “Christmas in July Half-Birthday BBQ,” complete with summer games and water balloons. In April, a host requested to RSVP to a “Silent Half-Birthday Retreat.” The month before, organizers planned a “Birthday Bonfire” in the Bay Area.
The non-birthday, in particular, seems ripe for wider adoption by non-royals. The concept may be more familiar today from the wacky tea party scene in Walt Disney's “Alice in Wonderland.” But the coinage first appeared in “Through the Looking-Glass,” Lewis Carroll's 1871 children's novel, in which Humpty Dumpty boasts to Alice that his handsome tie (or was it a belt?) was actually “an unbirthday present” from the White King and Queen.
Alice is confused, but Humpty Dumpty explains the wonderful potential of the company: “There are 364 days when you can receive non-birthday gifts,” he says, “and only one for birthday gifts, you know.
An “official birthday” is, of course, simply a non-birthday with crown and scepter. So if your birthday falls on an inappropriate date, there's no reason not to act like a king and choose a day more to your liking.
And remember: it's not an either/or proposition. According to Hardman, royal biographer and author of “Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. Her Story,” sovereigns still celebrate their royal dates of birth; It's simply a more intimate matter.
“When the monarch really has a birthday, there are several gun salutes, the national anthem is heard on Radio 4 in the morning,” he said. “You know, little things like that.”
