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| "The big 6...where has the time gone?" |
Families here don't do birthday parties - it is not an established custom and even presents are usually given in the singular. To be honest (and Scrooge like), I quite like this. The time and energy put into birthday parties always strikes me as being disproportionate to the enjoyment derived. And yes, I do conceive of birthday parties as a type of mathematical formula. To wit:
E = PxHxPB(WtI)
T
E - Enjoyment
P - Preparation
H - Hassle
PB - Present Buying
WtI - Who to Invite
T - Time
To make another one of those sweeping generalizations about my adopted country, I think the Japanese tend to avoid birthday celebrations for fear of the offense given should you not invite someone. It is, relatively speaking, fine to invite Cian's 10 classmates from the nursery school...actually, it's not. Ten 6 year olds gathered in our home, sugared out of their young minds, whizzing around like fizzy drink powered small hadrons in our kitchen's version of CERN, sweet Jesus...but should you mad enough to contemplate such a scenario (hello Eimear), then matters only escalate when Cian gets into primary school. Then he'll have 30 classmates and the fundamental laws of physics require that some kids be left uninvited or a giant black hole with be created and the world will cease to exist as we know it.
So who do you spurn? How do you tell those undesirables that they are unworthy of what passes for high society in Muroran? And why would you put yourself in such a position when it is so much easier to maintain social harmony and keep our continuing existence in this world safe?
Which was the course we took with Cian. Plus it meant he didn't have to share his birthday cake with anyone.
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