• Question: if nobody knew when their birthday was, how could you tell when you have your birthday?

    Asked by 445aged37 to Carolyn, Peter, Richard, Sara, Siana on 16 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Richard Unwin

      Richard Unwin answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Hi 445aged37

      I’m not sure you could, if you didn’t know the date. Certainly there are millions of cases where people don’t know their actual birth dates – in some places records are just not kept or accurate, especially places like Africa where children are born at home in villages without any real healthcare. I don’t suppose it matters really- just as long as you pick a date so you get to receive presents and eat cake!

    • Photo: Carolyn Nielsen

      Carolyn Nielsen answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Yep there would be no way of knowing exactly which day you were born on, which like Richard said is definitely true in a lot of developing countries although records are getting better.

      If you had blood samples from different people though there are things that change with age, so you might be able to guess if someone was very old or very young… but certainly not when to send a card!

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