Stilton's Story: Inside an English Cheese Tradition at Colston Bassett 🧀🇬🇧

Hi, I'm John Green. Welcome to my salon. This is Mental Floss on YouTube, and it is our birthday! Happy birthday, us! We even got you a cake. Actually, we got ourselves a cake. Hold on, I'm gonna make a wish. I can't tell you what I wish for, but I can say that I sure hope Beyoncé is a guest host of Mental Floss next year. So the Mental Floss of this show is officially one year old. Today I'm gonna talk about some ways that people celebrate birthdays around the world in different cultures and different religions. Plus, I'm gonna demonstrate some of these so that we can properly celebrate our birthday. And for those of you who've been complaining that we've been a little bit USA-centric lately, we're gonna get very worldwide today. Let's start with the actual origins of birthdays themselves. They may have started with the ancient Egyptians, like the Bible notes of Pharaoh's birthday, although it's possible that could mean the date of the pharaoh's death, like the day that he became a god. The ancient Romans definitely celebrated birthdays, though, and were probably the first people to celebrate their family and friends' birthdays, not just those of rulers and gods. In Denmark, a Danish flag placed outside the home means that it's somebody's birthday. If it's a child's birthday, the presents are usually placed on or around the child's bed so they can wake up surrounded by presents. That's nice. Sometimes a cake man or a cake lady is served, depending on whether the party is for a boy or a girl. The head of the cake person is usually chopped off first, which I will now demonstrate. This was a camel, and now it is a decapitated camel. At birthday parties for children in Australia and New Zealand, you might find fairy bread, which is white bread, butter, and sprinkles. By the way, the round and colorful sprinkles are called hundreds and thousands there. I'm now going to make some fairy bread, because it is basically the perfect food, so far as I can tell. What I'm not an expert in? Butter spreading. Alright, then you just... what do you do? You just kinda... whoa! Can you fold it up in, like, a fairy bread sandwich? Is that frowned upon, Australians? I don't know. I'm gonna try it, though. Whoa! At a Brazilian birthday party, people might pull the earlobes of the guest of honor. You can also probably expect to see brigadeiro there, which are a kind of chocolate truffle. Earpulling is also a thing in Hungary, where there's in fact a rhyming song that accompanies it. The translation is, God bless you, live so long your ears reach your ankles. Earlobe pulling is kind of similar to what other cultures refer to as the bumps. The bumps are especially common in the UK and Ireland, where the birthday boy or girl is lifted up and bumped on the ground once per each year they have been alive. The U.S. and Canada have a similar tradition, but with punches instead of bumps, because we're much more violent. Another violent-sounding tradition in the U.S. are smash cakes. These are small, individual cakes given to babies to do what they do best, make a mess of their food. I'm not going to explain this one, because you're on the internet, so I assume that you've already seen how adorable it is to watch babies destroy stuff. Instead, I'm gonna demonstrate. So I am a father. I've seen children do this a lot. Basically, you just go in and you just... That's basically it. In addition to punches, Canadians have been known to spread butter on the nose of the birthday person. Mark, I know that you are Canadian, but please don't make me do this one, because I just finished cleaning myself up after the smash cake. Similarly, it's considered good luck in Nepal to put colored rice yogurt on your forehead for birthdays. Mexicans have a special birthday song, Las Mañanitas, a.k.a. The Little Mornings, which is usually sung at a party before the group eats cake. And of course, piñatas are a common way to celebrate a birthday in Mexico. Although we usually think of them as Mexican, piñatas actually originated in China and were used to celebrate New Years. It was Europeans who eventually brought them over to Mexico. In Ghana, a traditional birthday dish is addo, mashed yams with eggs and onions. In China, yi mein is commonly eaten on birthdays. In English, those are longevity noodles, or long life noodles. Also, be sure to avoid giving a watch or clock as a gift in China. Those are considered bad luck. Celebrating individual birthdays is rare in Vietnam. Instead, all birthdays are celebrated on the Vietnamese holiday of Tet, which is a New Year's celebration. Children do receive gifts, though. Their elders give them red envelopes with money inside. Korea operates somewhat similarly. First birthdays are celebrated, but subsequent birthdays are all celebrated on the New Year. Wishing someone happy birthday before their actual birthday is considered bad luck in Germany. On someone's 16th birthday in Germany, they may have flour thrown on their head, which may sound rough. But in Jamaica, throwing flour on the head is in every birthday tradition, not just a one-time thing. I'm not going to throw flour on anyone's head here, but I will demonstrate with a doll. Happy birthday, Yoda! What are you, like a thousand now? Anyway, back to Germany. On 18th birthdays, the flour is replaced with eggs. And if a man reaches his 25th birthday before he marries, his friends will hang a Sockenkranz, or sock wreath, outside of his house. The old socks are a symbol of his old age. On that note, some cultures have different traditions for when people turn a certain age. Like, you probably already know that girls who practice Judaism have bat mitzvah when they turn 12, and boys have a bar mitzvah when they turn 13. Those ceremonies represent a move into adulthood. Let's finish up with some more age-specific traditions. I'm sure you've also heard of a quinceañera, especially if you were spending all of your free time watching My Super Sweet 16 in 2005. I'm not pointing any fingers. Meredith. In South Africa, when a person turns 21, their parents present them with a key that symbolizes responsibility and the future. In Holland, they celebrate crown years, which are the ages 5, 10, 15, 20, and 21. On those birthdays, you get bigger presents. The 1st, 5th, 10th, and 15th birthdays are the most important in Nigeria. Up to 100 people might show up to those celebrations, which usually involve a feast. For boys who practice Orthodox Judaism and Hasidic Judaism, the 3rd birthday is important because it's the day they receive their first haircut. In fact, that tradition has now spread in Israel and doesn't always apply only to religious people. Similarly, people from the Indian island of Minicoy shave their newborn baby's head after 20 days. Then, the hair is weighed. Whatever the weight is will be given to charity in silver or gold. That's not a birthday thing, really. We just thought it was cool. And now I return to my salon to tell you that the Chinese also have a special 1st birthday tradition. The baby is placed in front of a bunch of objects like books, flowers, stationery, coins, and toys. Parents believe that the items the baby reaches for are indications of future interests. So, like, if a coin is chosen, it's considered good luck and a sign that the baby in question will one day be rich. We're gonna try this out, actually, with our office dog, Alex. Alright, Alex, what will you choose? Oh, mmm, it turns out that Alex is beyond material possession. She chooses enlightenment. Thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these nice people. Every week we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions. And this week's question comes from TheNightTroll13, who asks, Why do we call a 60th of a minute a second? Well, NightTroll13, this comes from a Latin word, secunda, which meant second diminished part. Because the hour is divided twice by 60, the first division gives us minutes, the second division gives us seconds. If you have a mind-blowing question you'd like answered, please leave it below and we'll endeavor to answer as many as we can. Thank you again for watching, and as we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome. That's a pretty strong pinata. Ah, finally!