Half-birthdays are gaining popularity as a way to mark the midpoint between birthdays, with people embracing the occasion for various reasons. Lorraine C Ladish, a digital content creator, celebrated her half-59th birthday by buying a magenta leather jacket using a discount offered by stores. She sees it as an opportunity to 'squeeze every second, every month, out of my late 50s'.
The trend is evident on TikTok, where half-cake designs, banners, and cards are shared. Restaurants like TGI Fridays, Ember Inns, and All Bar One offer half-birthday discounts, while Betty Crocker provides menu ideas such as skewered hotdog bun halves and triangle sandwiches. Some people make half-cakes by baking a circular cake, halving it, and stacking the pieces into a semicircle.
Graphic designer Cheyanne Carroll from Florida created a half-birthday card for her husband, born on New Year's Eve, which became one of her top sellers. She notes that many people celebrate half-birthdays, though the occasions have become more low-key over time. Author Erin Dealey wrote The Half Birthday Book for children whose birthdays fall between winter festivities, when school is out and friends are away.
Half-birthdays are not a new phenomenon. On Gransnet, posters recall celebrating in the 1950s with small presents like chocolate. Literary precedents include Adrian Mole's '13 and three-quarters' and Humpty Dumpty's 'unbirthdays' in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass. While some see it as a post-pandemic trend, others have celebrated for decades, with children often marking halves and even quarters as a fun maths exercise.
