How to decorate a birthday the American way. Cultural differences. Or how a birthday is celebrated in America. Examples of Happy Birthday greetings in English with translation

You can write the following to a good friend

Happy Birthday Tom!
Hope you have a great day!
Thank you for being a great friend.
Mike.
Happy birthday, Tom!
I hope this day goes well.
Thank you for having such a great friend like you.
Mike.

May your birthday be full of happy hours and special moments to remember for a long long time!
May your birthday be full of happy hours and special moments that will be remembered for a long time!

I wish that life brings you a beautiful surprise for every candle on your bday cake!
I wish you have as many wonderful surprises in your life as there are candles on your birthday cake!

Let yourself do everything that you like most in life, may your Big Day be cheerful and happy!
Do whatever you enjoy most in life. May this special day for you be fun and happy!

On your birthday friends wish you many things, but I will wish you only two: always and never. Never feel blue and always be happy!
On your birthday, your friends wish you many things, but I want to wish you only two things: always and never. Never be sad and always be happy!

May you enjoy your special day to the fullest extent, buddy!
Have a blast on your special day, buddy!

Today I wish you a fun time, shared with your dear ones, and a lifelong happiness!
I wish you this day to have fun, communicate with your loved ones and happiness for the rest of your life!

May the dream that means most to you, start coming true this year. Happy Day!
May the dream that means the most to you begin to come true this year. Happy birthday!

Today is the birthday of the person who is spreading joy and positivity all around. May your birthday and your life be as wonderful as you are!
Today is the birthday of a person who brings joy and positivity to everyone around him. May your birthday and your life be as wonderful as you are!

As for this kind of postcard, Americans send them to their “well, very good friends.” But usually, they are limited to the two sentences that I wrote above.

Many of my American friends emphasized: they like this part of the Russian tradition, when we say long toasts, beautiful speeches, warm wishes and congratulations on various holidays - this is what makes them smile. But in life, you will almost never meet an American who would congratulate you in Russian - with a long text and a beautiful postcard. You should NOT be “offended” at them for this and consider them cold ignoramuses - just know that this is their culture, and nothing more.

How to find out from a bourgeois when his birthday is

My American girlfriend forgot the exact day of my birthday and she asked me like this:

I believe it is on the 14th?
Hope you had a nice day if so.

I seem to remember, is it your 14th birthday?
I hope you had a good time.

The good thing about the template is that it is very natural and doesn't put you in an awkward position. You just sort of clarify with the person: “I seem to remember, is your birthday on the 14th?”

Do they say: I congratulate you with your Birthday, New Year, Christmas, etc..

Those. Do they say verbatim: “Happy birthday, Happy New Year, Merry Christmas,” etc.?
No, bourgeois people never talk like that in real life.
All our voluminous Russian wishes: “I congratulate you on your birthday, New Year, Christmas, etc.” they come down to set phrases:

Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!
Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!
A guy congratulates his girlfriend like this:

Happy Birthday Baby!
Hope you enjoy your special day. Happy Birthday baby!
I hope you have a great time on your special day.
Words from the intimate love vocabulary are added here:
kiss you - kiss, love you - love, hug you - hug, etc.

Happy birthday Kate!
Enjoy your special day.
Love you
Your Bob

Happy birthday, Katya!

Have a great day!

Happy birthday my dear, I hope you have an amazing day today.

Do the carriers themselves use long “flower” wishes?

9 out of 10 of my friends wrote to me that very banal, “flowery” wishes in life are usually NOT said. Is it possible that one bourgeois, who is an artist at heart, wrote to me that he himself comes up with original twisted personal congratulations to his loved ones! very good friends and sends the card via regular postal service, NOT e-mail. But he is rather an exception to the rule, because... creative nature with a fine mental organization.

That's all.
Now you know how you can congratulate a foreigner on his birthday.

Today I would like to highlight the culture of gifts, talk about how it is customary to give gifts in America, what they prefer to give and how gifts are presented for various events in life. The culture of gifts in the USA is significantly different from Russia; there are special subtleties that you need to know.

Of course, the main holiday with many gifts is. Only for this holiday, Americans are ready to fork out for a good gift, or even more than one. At Christmas it is common to give several gifts to close relatives. For example, one or two small ones and one significant one. This could be a juicer, TV sound system, electronics, home appliances and much more. Usually around Christmas, store shelves are piled high with products at insane discounts. Most appliances and electronics are purchased just after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. During this period, companies make unprecedented profits, and buyers, like crazy, sweep everything off the shelves. This is how the year ends, with profits in the pockets of large corporations, thanks to smart marketing, and satisfied customers, confident that they purchased the product for practically nothing :)

Postcards are often given

Americans often forget to remove the label or hide the price of the item from the gift recipient. There is nothing wrong with this. Usually a receipt is attached to the gift, in case the gift is not liked or not suitable. It will always be accepted back or exchanged for something else in the store. There are special gift checks that do not indicate the price of the product. You will only find out the cost of the gift if you return an unsuitable gift.

Typical brooms from the supermarket :)

Purchased roses here have no scent at all, however, like many other flowers, they are grown with chemical fertilizers using modern technologies. But such flowers last a surprisingly long time. The flower broom comes with a bag of nutrient mixture, which is diluted in regular tap water. This bouquet can last for about two weeks!

Gifts for the occasion and birth of a child are a separate matter. When you are invited to, they additionally tell you in which store the future young family looked for gifts and registered. The scheme is simple - come to the specified store, name the names of the couple in love and they will print out a list of the products they liked. Your task is simple - choose a gift depending on your budget. After purchasing a gift, this product is automatically removed from the list, and no one will buy it again. This method is convenient and good. For me personally, it’s a little crazy that the couple dictates what exactly they want to get for the wedding. No matter what, the gift should be a surprise. Sometimes the bride and groom choose very expensive stores, where the cost of goods is inflated, and, it would seem, only a modest gift can be purchased on a good budget. For example, four wine glasses, since the cost of one glass can reach up to $20.

A Wedding Shower is often done before. The name of the party can be translated as a flow of gifts. The meaning of the party is simple - you bring a gift, again ordered in advance by the future husband and wife, and congratulate them on the upcoming significant event in their lives. At such parties, two parties get to know each other. Not only relatives, but also friends are invited to the party.

Similar showers are held at the birth of a baby. Friends and relatives bring gifts for the baby. The hosts offer light snacks and drinks for guests. Such an event is called a baby shower.

Of particular importance is the appearance of the gift, how beautiful and elegant the packaging looks. It is not customary to give gifts without packaging. This is considered bad manners. It may be an ordinary gift bag with a lot of wrapping paper inside, but a gift without packaging in America is not a gift at all. The essence is the same - the gift should be a surprise, and I completely agree with the Americans. After all, you must agree that giving gifts is no less, and sometimes even more pleasant, than receiving them! Give each other gifts more often!

The population of each country has its own characteristics, traditions, national flavor and mentality, which fully relate to such an individual moment as the choice of a gift for a holiday and the method of presenting it. Let's take a closer look at the traditions of one of the most developed countries in the modern world - the United States of America. So what kind of gifts, for what occasion and what are the features of presenting gifts in America? First of all, you need to know that gifts in the USA are not given on every holiday. You can give or receive a gift for Christmas, a wedding, or a birthday. All other holidays are celebrated in a narrow family circle or are completely ritual in nature and are held without gifts.

There are also several significant differences inherent in each holiday and gift:

• Any gift must be wrapped. Giving gifts without packaging is considered bad manners;
• The most common gift is money. The amount depends on the occasion and the degree of intimacy with the person to whom the gift is presented;
• Gift cards from various stores are popular. For the amount indicated on such a card, the hero of the occasion can purchase the goods he needs in the store where the card was purchased.

Children's birthdays are a special event.

Weddings in the United States of America are celebrated on a grand scale. This is a very serious and large-scale event for Americans. It often takes several years to carefully prepare for it. There are also several special traditions associated with weddings in the USA:

• Save the date.

  Don't be surprised if you receive a wedding invitation twice. The first of them is sent immediately when the exact wedding date is set and is called save the date, and the second looks like a regular invitation.

• Wedding shower

  - pre-wedding party. The name can be literally translated as a stream of wedding gifts. This event is intended to introduce two parties.

• Wish-list.

  The newlyweds choose their own gifts, making a list of everything they want to receive. This list is called Wish-list.

• Increasingly, due to the development of information technology, it is published on websites or pages on the global network. All invitees are given the right to edit this list, from which everyone chooses a gift according to their capabilities;
• There is a known case when enterprising newlyweds published a house on the list, breaking it into small components, and each guest paid for their part of the future nest of the new family.

All gifts given in the USA have something in common: they are usually given with a check. This tradition was not started to boast about one’s own capabilities and financial well-being, but rather due to completely objective factors. Firstly, without a receipt, the product is not subject to warranty, and, secondly, if it is not a wedding gift, then it may well not be needed. Pragmatic Americans, in this case, do not consider it shameful to simply return the item to the store where it was purchased at almost full price. Afterwards, the goods will be put up for sale again at a lower, and sometimes even bargain, price. That's why the big shopping season continues after the holidays.

Interesting and original gifts for a friend from the USA