By: Mary Blessing Ahairiirwe
I woke up this morning at around 3:40am and in my world of random thoughts, sparked off a sole debate.
Are Birthdays Worth Celebrating???. It was such an interesting one that made my mind reminisce my childhood days in the early 2000s. I was just a kid yesterday, playing in rain, matching ball and cup in school, mingling soil and soon heading for my silver jubilee celebrations. I laughed about it.
Growing up in my local village in Uganda, birthdays were just another day. Honestly, I didn’t mind this at all.
Birthdays in our household weren’t given much attention, so fetching five jerrycans of water from the well on your special day was still a chore.
My mother’s morning routine of waking us up to go to the garden was never interrupted because of a birthday.
In an era with limited exposure to social media,  comparing birthday celebrations wasn’t an option. Did kids in our schools celebrate? My memory is sharp with old memories, and I don’t recall any. The only exception in the family was my elder sister, born on December 24th. She benefited from the Christmas celebrations, with roughly 33 kilograms of meat available at home.
My mother participated in a Christmas savings group where six people contributed money weekly from the start of the year to buy a cow, slaughter it, and share the meat during Christmas. That experience is a story for another day.
Such a coincidence of Christmas and her birthday gave her the privilege of eating meat on her day. As for me, and my other three siblings, we didn’t eat meat back then, so celebrations might have been bread or soda if they were to ever happen.
Looking back and now, it’s a new era. We’ve seen people receive cars as gifts on their birthdays, parents throwing lavish parties for their one-year-olds as if it were a wedding, and relationships ending because a partner forgot the date or didn’t do something special. Sometimes, maybe the gifts didn’t meet expectations.
I once heard of a girl who broke up with her boyfriend because he got her shoes instead of the iPhone she wanted.
In rare cases, some people have even become depressed and considered suicide because they felt unseen on their birthdays.
A certain case study in Japan highlighted a higher risk of suicide during and around birthdays. It emphasized milestone ages such as 20, 30, 40, 60, and so on, as these symbolic ages may highlight underachievement and failures to people and they find nothing to show off for their age.
Others find this period so lonely to celebrate without family and other loved ones. It’s important to remember that you’re not alone in feeling that way.
Is all of this worth it? Or are we just “growing up, reducing our life span” as my father used to say?
In my view, celebrating your birthday is worthwhile if you can and if you value it. It’s okay to celebrate the hurdles overcome, achievements made, and everything you’ve survived in the past 365 days. Acknowledging another year of life is a victory in itself.
However, if you can’t afford a luxurious party with friends, that’s okay too. Be grateful for another year, thank God for guidance and protection, and then get on with your day. Committing suicide because your partner didn’t take you to the Maldives like your best friend’s partner did isn’t worth it. Instead, find joy in the simple things, like a phone call from a loved one or a quiet moment of reflection.
The writer is turning 24 on October 7th and is excited about the day, though unsure if any celebrations will happen. Happy birthday to me and all the October babies (Libras) out there. It’s already a gift, blessing, and privilege to be born, and the world still holds amazing things for us all.
Stay kind and safe as the New Year unfolds.
MARY BLESSING AHAIRIIRWE
maryblessingahairiirwe@gmail.com
