Let’s Celebrate: Birthdays at Susanna Wesley

by Janet Chichester, Director

Birthdays—an event celebrated worldwide in many cultures. During the years I’ve worked with the kids at Susanna Wesley School, I’ve noticed that while the kids are very excited about their birthdays, many of them don’t know when their birthday is. Sometimes, their parents don’t know either. Some of the children are too poor to be able to celebrate, and I think some just have too many kids to remember when all of them were born.

At school, we have always celebrated birthdays, usually once a month for all the children who were born in that month. It started out with cookies that the kids got to frost before eating. Now we have brownies!

A big part of our birthday celebration is the birthday hug. The birthday kids stand up in front of the class, and we sing “Happy Birthday” (“Feliz Cumpleaños”) in English and in Spanish, and then, all the children line up to give hugs to the birthday boys and girls. After the birthday hugs, each child gets the opportunity to choose a book to keep and take home with him/her. Each teacher also gets to pick a birthday book.

Year-round, the kids in the school come up to me and ask when their birthday is and when they will get their book (even the children who have already had their birthdays this year!).  I have never seen happier children than those receiving their birthday books.

What a blessing—to do one small thing that results in such big joy.

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