Hey, I think Classical Values is two years old today. (Yup, I just checked.)

I was startled to realize that it's my blogiversary, and now that I've had a little time to think it over, well, I do feel very much like a two year old.

I just thanked my blogfather Jeff Soyer, and I think it's high time I started acting my age.

How should I celebrate?

Should I celebrate?

I mean, should I have a cake like the one my blogfather had last year?

How might the stereotypical pagan goth look go over?

Something like this, perhaps?

Hmmm.... I dunno. A big fire like that might be considered a bit precocious for a two year old.

Furthermore, does the fact that birthdays are pagan mean that any celebration at all might be misinterpreted?

I doubt it, and I think the above is an extreme position. The mainstream view is that whether they're pagan or not, birthdays, anniversaries and celebratory cakes are at once both classical and traditional. Historians know the Romans had them, and maybe the Greeks too:

Some historians think that the custom of the birthday cake was observed in ancient Greece, and they report that the birthday cake began with the Greeks who used to make honey cakes or bread. Ancient Romans celebrated three different types of birthdays: Private celebrations among family and friends, the birthdays of cities and temples, and the birthdays of past and present emperors or members of the imperial family. The 50th year was celebrated with a honey cake made of wheat flour, grated cheese, honey, and olive oil.

Not too dramatic, but it looks edible.

I'm not sure about candles, although again, there's evidence of a classical tradition there too.

Candles on birthday cakes have been around for some considerable time. Birthday celebrations were originally not celebrations at all, according to some; instead, people worried that they would be attacked by spirits on the anniversary of their birth, and so clustered with family and friends in order to keep safe. This quasi-religious aspect to a birthday "celebration" continued; we have birthday cakes because either the Greeks made round cakes to venerate Artemis, goddess of the moon, or because the Germans made a special bread (which might be called Geburtstagorten and might not) in the shape of the baby Jesus' swadding clothes. The candles were an extension of this; Gibbons stated in 1986 that the Greeks put candles on their round cakes to make them glow like the moon, hoping to gain Artemis' special favour. Alternatively, the candles were intended to carry the birthday wishes up to God (or the gods), along with the smoke.

But I haven't made my wishes yet!