Birthday cake
The birthday cake has been an integral part of the birthday celebrations in predominantly Protestant countries since the middle of the 19th century, which extended to Western culture.[1] Certain rituals and traditions, such as singing of birthday songs, associated with birthday cakes are common to many Western cultures. The Western tradition of adding lit candles to the top of a birthday cake originates in 18th-century Germany. However, the intertwining of cakes and birthday celebrations stretch back to the Ancient Romans. The development of the birthday cake has followed the development of culinary and confectionery advancement. While throughout most of Western history, these elaborate cakes in general were the privilege of the wealthy, birthday cakes are nowadays common to most Western birthday celebrations. Around the world many variations on the birthday cake, or rather the birthday pastry or sweets, exist. "Birthday Cake" is a song by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna, from her sixth studio album Talk That Talk (2011). After it leaked onto the internet, fans expressed interest in the track being included on Talk That Talk, but it was later revealed that the 1:18 (one minute, 18 seconds) length that leaked was in fact the final cut and was not being considered for inclusion on the album. However, due to a high level of fan interest, the song was included on the album as an interlude. The lyrics to "Birthday Cake" express the desire to have spontaneous sex. Moussesic critics were divided on "Birthday Cake", with the majority both praising and criticising the song's overt sexual lyrical content. Several critics compared the song to the previous track on the album "Cockiness (Love It)", which also consists of sexually suggestive lyrics. Upon the release of Talk That Talk, the song debuted on the lower regions of the singles charts in South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. The full length version, featuring former boyfriend Chris Brown, premiered online on February 20, 2012 to fall in place with Rihanna's 24th birthday.A birt
day is a day when a person celebrates the anniversary of his or her birth. Birthdays are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with a gift, party, or rite of passage. The celebration of a birthday usually is thought to mark how old a person is, traditionally stopping when death occurs and only stating that if still alive, they would have been (number of years) old. Some contemporary writers ignore this aspect, however, and keep counting the years since the date of birth of famous people, such as, proclaiming that it is Shakespeare's "four hundredth birthday" (although he died at the age of fifty-two) instead of noting that it is the four hundredth anniversary of his birth. Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization, Western lifestyle or European civilization, is a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe. The term has come to apply to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration, such as the countries of The Americas, and the countries of Australasia, and is not restricted to the continent of Europe. Western culture is characterised by a host of artistic, philosophic, literary, and legal themes and traditions; the heritage of Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Jewish, and Latin ethnic and linguistic groups, and Christianity, which played an important part in the shaping of Western civilization since at least the 4th century.[1][2][3] Also contributing to Western thought, in ancient times and then in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance onwards, a tradition of rationalism in various spheres of life, developed by Hellenistic philosophy, Scholasticism, humanism, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. Values of Western culture have, throughout history, been derived from: political thought, widespread employment of rational argument favouring freethought; assimilation of human rights; the need for equality; and democracy.