“Genethliacon” for Barbara Bogołębska, or on the Need to Celebrate Birthdays and Anniversaries

Abstract

The most popular Polish dictionaries of literary terms, which offer the definitions of even long lost and extremely particular genres such as Indian or Japanese drama, lack even the basic information on the genre which has existed in European literature (and even outside it) for the last 23 centuries. Genethliacon is a genre which has existed since the times of Callimachus (3rd c. BC), which has been used to celebrate a person’s birth or the anniversary of their birth. Genethliacons may be of a lyrical, dramatic or rhetorical nature, and are still practised today in various languages of the world (in Latin, in line with the ancient tradition). This article provides an outline of the development of the genre within the European tradition. Initial birthday songs, usually connoting Apollo, linked people with light and poetry. What is particularly interesting is that the basic characteristics of genethliacon’s genes have not undergo any major changes throughout the many ages. The celebration of one’s birth, anniversaries and other jubilees still entails wishes, and gift-giving, including poetry developed for the occasion. It may be worthwhile to preserve such a beautiful tradition by giving someone an originally composed genethliacon, e.g. Genetliacon Barbarae Bogołębskae dedicatum.