About Birthday Spankings

Posted by April: A good friend of mine celebrate's her birthday today and I mentioned something about "go easy on the birthday spankings." Later, I wondered where in the WORLD do bday spanks originate from?

This is a serious thing. Americans, with heritage stemming from Europe, Asia, Southern Pacific, South America, Africa, the Middle east and beyond, how can we find out where this tradition traces? According to Wikipedia after typing in "birthday spanking", the search engine revealed that it is a certain "rite of passage" and a "matter of bonding" to team up or allow the head of the household to administer the spanks.

Furthermore...customarily, the person receives a number of spanks corresponding to their age, plus, "one to grow on"; that is to say, someone who was turning n would receive n+1 spanks. An equation, wow!

In light of very old tradition the ancient Egyptians used spanking on the birthday to prepare the person for the afterlife, i.e. soften the body for the tomb.

And finally, the most well-known origination for bday spanks comes from the single smack on the bum doctors and midwives performed on infants to encourage their first breath or scream. This is no longer practiced in modern medicine. Chris & Shan recently had a baby, I'm positive, their was no smacking their babe in the delivery room. He's absolutely adorable, a little cream puff!

Here at the MF blog, its not just about pictures, its about all things important and interesting. Sort of like the mythbusters of photography & blogging.