为什么我们要在生日那天吃蛋糕？

游余

Did you know that in Mexico， the first piece of your birthday cake must begiven to the person you love the most？ Whether you buy a nice cake at a store ormake one at home with love， celebrating any birthday is not finished without acake glimmering1 with candles！

你知道吗？在墨西哥，你生日蛋糕的第一塊必须送给你最爱的人。无论你是在商店里买一个漂亮的蛋糕，还是在家里带着爱动手做一个蛋糕，庆祝任何生日都离不开一个点着蜡烛的蛋糕！

So why is a birthday celebration in need of a birthday cake？ The answer tothis goes way back to the beginning of written history！ Well be going over theorigins of the first birthday cake and following it from the history of human tothese days. If its your birthday today， make a wish， and lets learn about cake！

那么，为什么庆祝生日需要一个生日蛋糕呢？这个问题的答案可以追溯到有文字记载的历史开端！我们将从生日蛋糕的起源开始，追溯它在人类史上的发展直至今日。如果今天是你的生日，许完愿就让我们了解一下蛋糕的知识吧！

The ancient Greeks started the idea of having cakes when celebratinganother year of life as we know it today. The Greeks got this idea of celebratingbirthdays from something the Ancient Egyptians2 did. They had a tradition inmemory of a pharaoh爷s3 coronation4 as a god or goddess， which they calledtheir“birthday”. Cakes were made as sacrifices5.

正如我们今天所知，古希腊人在庆祝自己又活了一年时萌生了吃蛋糕的想法。希腊人庆祝生日的想法来源于古埃及人的习俗，他们有一个纪念法老加冕为神或女神的传统，称之为“生日”。而蛋糕是被当作贡品制作的。

The Greeks first offered cakes to Artemis， their moon goddess. They alsoplaced candles on the cake to make it glimmer like a full moon in honor of themoon goddess， Artemis.

希腊人首先向他们的月亮女神阿尔忒弥斯献上蛋糕。他们还在蛋糕上放了蜡烛，让它像满月一样闪闪发光，以纪念月亮女神阿尔忒弥斯。

In the 16th and 17th centuries， the price of goods such as sugar was cut downa lot， so people could buy cakes. In the 1800s， it was more and more usual to seebirthday parties. Birthday cakes became very popular， and the idea of“moderncakes”was born.

在16 世纪和17 世纪，糖等商品的价格大幅下降，因此人们可以买得起蛋糕了。到19 世纪，人们越来越经常看到有人举行生日聚会，生日蛋糕变得非常流行，“现代蛋糕”的概念由此诞生了。

In todays world， there has been a big rise in memory of important things， suchas birthdays or festivals. Celebrating a birthday may be different from country tocountry; however， there comes a similarity6—cakes on birthdays for you and me.

在当今世界，纪念诸如生日或节日之类重要事情的活动大量增加。庆祝生日可能因国家而异，然而也有相似之处———你我生日时都会吃的蛋糕。