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Re: CHAT: Happy Birthday (was Re: Re: Uglossia and Utopia)

From:FFlores <fflores@...>
Date:Saturday, September 25, 1999, 14:33
Ed Heil <edheil@...> wrote:
>=20 > And I'll be thirty on October 4 (the feast of St. Francis!), so I'm a > third agemate.
OK, I have to say Boudewijn didn't know but I was just 23 on the *same day* he was 30 (this Friday 24!). So that's four of us near the equinox... So happy birthday to you all. And a happy Spring to the minority of us in the Southern hemisphere. (Nevermind if it's raining and hail is forecasted for the night, as it is here...) AFMCL, people celebrate their 'whole years' more than their actual birthdays; that is, they celebrate on New Year's Day. So age is the important issue. Decades are especially celebrated, as well as several other important ages. For their ten years, children are greeted like this: Gian stadduth famp i thanen! 2sPSS ten-year now * joy 'Joy on your ten-year!' Other words for ages are _skaladduth_ 'twenty-year', _murstadduth_ 'thirty-year', etc., plus the _d=E9nqesduth_, which is for 16-year boys (it means 'become-a-man's year'), and _=F3aiduth_ ('year of knowledge') for 15-year girls. Details on this goes to conculture... As a result, it's more important to remember the age of a friend or acquaintance than the actual date of birth, since one has to greet properly. A wrong age in the greeting might be insulting. =20 --Pablo Flores http://draseleq.conlang.org/pablo-david/