Happy Half-Birthday

In the Walt Disney full-length feature cartoon, Alice in Wonderland (1951), Alice enters the house of the Mad Hatter, attracted by the sounds of a celebration inside.  The Mad Hatter, along with the March Hare and a very tired Dormouse, is celebrating their respective unbirthdays.  These obviously are all the days of the year which are not their birthdays. 

This gave me idea.  Celebrating every day (but one) as an unbirthday is a bit much.  But, celebrating only once a year on your birthday is too little it seems to me.  Therefore, I invented the half-birthday.  And today, June the 7th, is my daughter Rachel’s half-birthday.  Happy half-birthday, Rachel.

After all, people will say to you, “How old are you?”  If you want to give out this information, you tell them your age as of your last birthday.  But that birthday could be ten months ago.  So the age you provided is thus misleading.  You are actually closer to your next birthday.  But you are not there yet.  So breaking the year in two halves makes more sense.  Now when you tell them you are say, thirty and a half years-old, with a half-birthday only four months ago, you are providing more accurate information.

In addition, think of the advantages of this extra day of celebration.  The economy will benefit from people spending money on half-birthday cards, store-bought presents, gift cards, chocolate and ice cream half-birthday cakes, half-birthday parties, pizza parties, surprise parties, etc., etc., etc.  We will all be a little happier as we receive more personal recognition from our spouses, children, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and colleagues.  I don’t see any downside to my idea.  Do you?  So when is your half-birthday?