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Are Birthday Candles Jewish?

By Eliezer Zalmanov

Question:

Do Jews place candles on birthday cakes and blow them out?

Response:

Candles are nice. But some trace the custom of placing candles on a birthday cake to the ancient Greek practice of celebrating the birthday of one of the pagan gods, as reported by Philchorus

At any rate, if you do put them there, why blow them out? On our birthday we celebrate the continuation of life. Each year we grow stronger, both physically and spiritually. In Jewish symbolism, a candle represents the soul of man (as you can read in The Candle), and the last thing we want to do on a day that we celebrate life is to snuff it out.

Happy birthday!

Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov

2 Comments Posted

By Eliezer Zalmanov More articles... |

Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov is co-director, along with his wife Chanie, of Chabad of Northwest Indiana, and a member of Chabad.org's Ask the Rabbi team.

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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:

Posted: June 22, 2009

Interesting

I did not know of any pagan origin to candles. I always thought we lit them to celebrate life and health. Symbolically I always put an extra candle so there is one candle for each year lived and one for the upcoming year (a prayer that it may be fully lived). Practically, the candles must be blown out before the cake can be served. Leaving them to drip wax on the cake all night doesn't work well. The tradition of trying to blow them all out in one breath is a sort of test of breath - a full and powerful breath proving health. As the candles get more numerous the breath control it requires to blow them out is an expression of the growing self-disciple and self-control of the individual - another important quality for health and happiness. The reward for such health and discipline is yummy cake!

Posted By J.E.K., Ocala, FL

Posted: June 8, 2009

PERFECT!

short and straight to the point. great explanation rabbi.

Posted By danny

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