“When I spoke of birthday parties, they listened intently. I talked of the cake, songs, and gifts—an increase in candles each year as we get older. “Why would you do that?” they inquired. “To us celebration means something special. There isn’t anything special about getting older. It takes no effort. It just happens!”
“If you don’t celebrate getting older,” I said. “what do you celebrate?”
“Getting better,” was the reply. “We celebrate if we are a better, wiser person this year than last. Only you would know, so it is you who tells the others when it is time to have the party.”
Pg 78
“They celebrate no holidays in our yearly manner. They do honor each tribe member sometime throughout the year, not on a specific birthday, but rather to acknowledge the person’s talent, contribution to the community, personal spiritual growth. They do not celebrate getting older; what they do celebrate is becoming better.”
Pg 138
Source: Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan. The book describes her experiences with a remote tribe of nomadic Aboriginals. They share with her the wisdom of their 50,000-year-old culture which has been completely unchanged by the white people who came to Australia.