Was There a Birthday-#Psalm BEFORE #HappyBirthdayToYou, @CyndiLauper (#June22)? #Psalms #Psalmodize #Psalmody
Watching a random Youtube-video (I think it was 'Mistakes Disney made in their Robin Hood,' and one 'mistake' was "Singing 'Happy Birthday to You' when the song hadn't actually been written in the time-period Robin Hood is said to take place"), I wonder "What did they sing before 'Happy Birthday to You'?"
That's a question that was also asked on Quora, where they said (quoting an old blog) that people didn't even celebrate birthdays (at least not 'with parties') until the late 1830s—shortly before that song became popular.
However, a little more searching found-out that the song (originally "Good Morning to You") was written in 1893 (does the 'Quora-spondent' think that '50-or-70 years' is "shortly"?) And Egypt's Pharoah was known to give celebrate a birthday-feast with his court followers 4,000+ years prior! ... Was there 'a popular song sung at birthday-parties in the interval?
I try to find the answer to that, but most of my sources get distracted into a discussion of copyright-law ... talking about how the song was first published (with the 'Good Morning to All'-lyrics) in Song Stories for the Kindergarten, how the song was published with the new lyrics in 1924 (or maybe 1911), how the song-writers' sister sued that (those) publisher(s) because the use of her sisters' melody was not authorized, how she then co-published the-song-with-the-new-lyrics in 1935,
and how–through later law-maneuvers-etc. more-complicated than one should think–the song was declared "public domain" in 2016 (retroactively? I don't know).
I do a search on 'Ancient Birthday Songs' and find:
I try to find the answer to that, but most of my sources get distracted into a discussion of copyright-law ... talking about how the song was first published (with the 'Good Morning to All'-lyrics) in Song Stories for the Kindergarten, how the song was published with the new lyrics in 1924 (or maybe 1911), how the song-writers' sister sued that (those) publisher(s) because the use of her sisters' melody was not authorized, how she then co-published the-song-with-the-new-lyrics in 1935,
and how–through later law-maneuvers-etc. more-complicated than one should think–the song was declared "public domain" in 2016 (retroactively? I don't know).
I do a search on 'Ancient Birthday Songs' and find:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birthday_songs#Other_traditional_songs
- https://linguaphiles.livejournal.com/1745463.html
- https://www.thoughtco.com/happy-birthday-in-latin-119468
- http://sca.claypool.me/songs/vikingbirthday.html
- http://www.shira.net/culture/birthdays.htm
- ... among other listings
Another page I 'surfed' mentioned 'birthday-celebrations in the Old Testament,' but it turns out those 'birthday-parties' are pagan practices (like Christmas, Easter, Halloween) that we ought to simply "acknowledge" rather than "celebrate" if we hope to pattern-after our Bible-heroes.
the words that make up 'Birthday') and Song;
so the first word I can think of that means 'song
of celebration' is ...
"Psalm (Hebrew תהילים)" is built on ancient words that mean Play on a Stringed |Instrument, Pull, |Twitch" (|Feel, the Biblical Hebrew was mizmor (מזמור) ... makes you think of Mesmerize," no? the way young David would play the harp to 'help the King relax').
And Microsoft's Bing Rewards told me that June 22 was the birthday of ALL THESE CELEBRITIES! See the other famous birthdays listed here (or find 'the exact day/celebrity you're looking-for' on Bing!)
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