Brazilian Kids' Birthday Celebration

Can you talk about birthday traditions? In Brazil, you find many common things in all birthday commemorations. For instance, the food, the singing, and the first piece of cake, all those have patterns that repeat often, especially in children's parties. Of course, every group has its own idiosyncrasies, which make them unique. For example, in my workplace, the poor Erich makes birthday about every two weeks. Someone started the joke, and it had stuck.

Birthdays are important in Brazil. Kids dream about their upcoming parties; parents often spend a great deal of money on them. Many places are specialized in children's birthdays, with sophisticated playgrounds. They offer from the food to the entertainers. High middle class couples see in these places not only an opportunity to give their kids an unforgettable party, but also the freedom of not having to clean up the mess afterwards. Of course, most birthdays are not so expensive, not for lack of desire, only for lack of money.

Poor or rich kids' parties have very specific rules. First, they learn that they must say "thank you" for every present, before they start ripping off the packing. Second, they are not to eat docinhos before the cake is cut. They have to contend themselves with the snacks and soda until them. The docinhos usually stay on a table, and they are part of the decoration. You may translate docinhos as sweets.

Docinho refers to a very specific class of sweets made from, well let's call it, Brazilian condensed milk. It has vegetal fat and sugar, a lot of it. It is light yellow, very sweet and thick. Put two cans of Brazilian condensed milk inside a cooker, add margarine or butter, plus something to give a flavor. Cook it slowly, always stirring, until you can see the bottom. Wait for it to cool down, put butter or margarine in your hands, make small balls, decorate, and voilà, you have docinhos. Rinse and repeat for every single other flavor you want; chocolate, coconut and peanuts are common.

The high point of the party is the moment of singing the Brazilian version of Happy Birthday. When the singing ends, the kid must put out one or two candles, which have the shape of numbers, representing the age. Often they have hard time trying to put the candle put out. The candles have a small amount of powder and they burn nicely, throwing little sparks, but they insist on lighting themselves up, over and over again.

The child expected to cut the first piece of cake with some help and to dish it out to someone. In some parties, you see children running and fighting over docinhos. Shortly after that, people start leaving, and the party ends.

Happy Birthday

Brazilian Version

Parabéns para você
Nessa data querida
Muitas felicidades
Muitos anos de vida
(repete)

Happy birthday to you
In this dear date
Much happiness
Many years of live
(repeat)

Not part of music but we often add

É pique! (5x)
É hora! (5x)
Ra Ti Bum
[nome do aniversariante] (muitas vezes)

It's energy! (5x)
It's time! (5x)
Ha Tee Boom
[the birthday kid's name] (many times)

A few times, we make a small joke

Com quem será?
Com quem será?
Com quem será?
Que a/o [nome do aniversariante] vai casar?

Vai depender
Vai depender
Vai depender
Vai depender se [no de um convidado] vai querer?

Who will he/she choose?
Who will he/she choose?
Who will he/she choose?
To get married with?

It'll depend on
It'll depend on
It'll depend on
It'll depend on if [a name from a invited person] will accept.