Erin turned 4 several weeks ago, giving us an opportunity to learn a tiny bit about birthday traditions in Australia. She and I walked to our local grocery to pick out birthday goodies, and came home with a fairy cake mix and birthday poppers.
The fairy cake mix turned out lovely miniaturized cupcakes, complete with a strawberry flavored pink icing and a glittery purple topping.
Prior to eating the cupcakes, we sang Happy Birthday – Aussie style. This involves the traditional Happy Birthday song, plus three loud “Hip-Hip-Hoorays” and then claps for the number of years. I’ve no idea whether this tradition holds for adults as well. I reckon that Chris and I will be just fine avoiding 40+ claps as our birthdays won’t fall during our stay here. Chris’s dad will be visiting here in June over his birthday, though, so perhaps we’d better do some research…
Birthday poppers were a fun revelation – maybe they are sold in the US, but I’ve never seen them prior to finding them in the party section at Foodland. These tiny firecrackers, packaged up in a little plastic bottle, activate by pulling a string. Not only do they make a little pop like one of those tissue paper bits that we used to throw on sidewalks as kids, but they project miniaturized colored streamers.Erin’s birthday happened to coincide with the arrival of our first visitor, a dear friend from Georgia, and the opening night of the Adelaide Fringe Festival. We celebrated over dinner at a dumpling restaurant in Adelaide’s Chinatown, where Erin gamely tackled a mango smoothy that looked nearly as big as her head.
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| Happy Birthday, Er-Bear! |
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