You know those ballons that say "Happy nth birthday"...

[derelicte]

Does anyone else have to hold themselves back from buying the 'correct' number on the ballon?

e.g. DS is about to be two. It is therefore his third birthday. People will look at me as if I'm mad if I string up "Happy 3rd Birthday" balloons, won't they?

well, it depends what you classify a birthday as, doesn't it? You could argue that a birthday is a celebration of the day you were born - therefore you first birthday is the one that takes place when you celebrate your birth for the first time - one year on.

According to that argument, the day you are actually born is the day you are born, not your birthday.

Well, that is how I justify it to myself as I reluctantly buy the frigging balloons. But in my heart of hearts I feel it is wrong, all wrong.

There's an interesting side discussion which says the millennium should have been celebrated a year on - as there is no year 0.

So we were celebrating the year 2000 at the beginning of the 2000th year - to celebrate 2 millennia we should really have been celebrating at the end of the year.

Yes MMJ, but the day you are born is your first birthday.

no. the day you were born is your birthday. then a year later you celebrate your first birthday ie the first anniverary of your birthday.

it isn't incorrect

Well MMJ, the day of your birth is your birthday, but I do like your "joyeux anniversaire" idea.

I write it on the entirely intentionally spelled "ballons" of my title. Nothing like a sprinkling of French to make one sound urbane, don'tcha think?

If Birthday was the day of your birth, then you wouldn't have a 2nd... So it's really the term Birthday that doesn't really make that much sense.

yes

obviously, the day you are born is your birthday ie, the day of your birth

Duh

Wonder if it has been shortened from Birth Anniversary Day or something...

This isn't pedantry, it's insanity.

what

LOL @ pointydog

...birth dates on a "ballon"?

Sounds a little Gallic to my untutored ears...