Birthday parties for ordinary Americans only caught on in the 1800s
Throughout history the rich and powerful threw themselves birthday parties, but the custom reached middle-class Americans only around the 19th century and settled into its familiar shape in the 20th. English speakers once had other words for social gatherings too, calling some of them drums or assemblies.
A party, broadly, is a gathering of invited guests brought together by a host to socialise, talk, have fun, or mark a festival or special occasion, usually with food and drink and often music or dancing. Ones held for a particular person, day or event, such as a birthday, the Super Bowl or St. Patrick's Day, tend to be called celebrations. They need not be private: parks, pubs, beer gardens, clubs and restaurants host public parties, sometimes charging admission, and whole streets fill for Mardi Gras or the end of a long war.
The Western birthday party has a fixed script. Guests bring presents, the room is hung with balloons and streamers, and a cake arrives with lit candles while everyone sings Happy Birthday; the guest of honour makes a wish, blows the candles out and gets the first slice. Children's versions add a session of opening gifts, goodie bags handed out as guests leave, and cone-shaped hats that adults sometimes wear too. Milestone ages get grander treatment, as with the North American sweet sixteen and the Latin American quinceañera. Children have worn special clothes to such parties since medieval times, and Germany may have held them as kinderfeste.
Surprise parties are kept secret from the person they honour, and birthdays are the usual excuse. Guests typically arrive an hour or so early while a friend in on the plan steers the honoree to the venue. Decorations stay out of sight from outside, then the crowd springs from hiding shouting surprise, sometimes armed with silly string and balloons for extra shock.
Dinner parties are usually hosted at home. The most formal put guests at a laid table with full place settings, often after a cocktail hour of drinks and mingling in a living room or bar, and wine flows throughout, sometimes a different bottle for each course.
Source: Party
