Birthday, Name Day, Name-day — the same thing? Untangling Calendar Knots We often hear these three phrases and often use them as synonyms. "Today is my birthday," "congratulations on your name day," "it's your name-day today" — it seems that all three phrases mean the same: a person has a celebration related to their personal date. However, this is a profound misconception. Each of these concepts has its own history, traditions, and even philosophy. Birthday, name day, and name-day are three different holidays that sometimes coincide in the calendar, but are never identical in meaning. Let's figure out what distinguishes them from each other and why it is so important for us to know this difference. Birthday: a secular holiday of personality Birthday is the simplest and most understandable date of the three. This is the day a person was born. It is not tied to religion, the church calendar, or the name. This is a purely personal, biological mark: the date, month, and year recorded in the birth certificate. Birthday is a secular holiday that is celebrated almost everywhere in the world, although the forms and scale of this celebration can vary greatly. The tradition of celebrating a birthday with a cake and candles in Russia came relatively recently — only in the 19th-20th centuries. Before that, in Russia, birthdays were not celebrated at all, and the main personal holiday was the name day. However, with the advent of Soviet power, when religious traditions were replaced, the birthday took the place of the name day. Today, the birthday is the most widespread and universal holiday that unites people regardless of religion, nationality, and age. It is important to understand that the birthday is not about the name, not about the saint, and not about the church. It is about a specific person, about their appearance in this world. This is why birthday greetings are usually addressed to the person personally, mentioning their age, achievements, and future. Name da ... Read more