Classic Retro Rewind - 210

Baby, it's a classic! Classic Retro Rewind is the 210th episode of the Soul Forge Podcast. It is also what I believe to be our first mostly repeat show. What you are about to hear is an episode that I released back on September 5, 2017. Episode 12 was all about celebrating birthdays, and why we do such a thing. I talk about the history of birthdays, and actually go into some pretty good details. You will learn about the Germans, the Romans, the Greeks and the Egyptians.

The earliest recorded birthday party in Western annals appears in Genesis in the Old Testament, as the Egyptian pharaoh whom Joseph served is described having one to mark his. Many polytheistic civilizations marked birthdays in conjunction with astrology, in hopes of using that to predict their future destinies, although celebrating birthdays was usually reserved for those potentates who could afford it. Judaism, in contrast, never mentions anyone’s birthday, although it does mark one’s 13th with the rite of passage of a bar or bat mitzvah, since at that age they make the transition to maturity and are expected to understand and take up all the faith and attendant responsibilities of a Jewish adult. Early Christianity had an equally hard time accepting the whole concept of a birthday, regarding astrology as a pagan practice and an individual birthday as a celebration of ego, the exact opposite of the attitude they sought to encourage.

Due to some unforeseen emergency repair work here at work, there really wasn't time to research and record a fully new episode. I hope you enjoy what I was able to put together for you. Sure, I could have skipped a week, but I really don't like doing that.

This week's podcast promo: Cosmic Pizza Podcast, Dr. Geek's Vaccine Push