We've sort of had this discussion in our group. It's not fully resolved, but here's what we've come up with so far.
Everyone who's not a babe in arms gets a year older at sacred time. Your counter increments sometime during the ritual. Doesn't matter what time of year you were actually born.
People do know the day they were born. We're an agricultural society with a complex ritual calendar, and we're quite capable of recalling that Unn was born on Fireday of Death week in Dark season (and how we didn't expect the wee mite to see sacred time, but she turned out tougher than we thought).
What I'm not sure about is whether a birthday is celebrated. Wedding anniversaries, yes. Possibly the anniversaries of certain parts of the coming of age rituals, or being accepted by your god (although since you'd try to do these on auspicious days they're likely to match up with regular holy days). I don't know whether there's a special day that's "your day" for each member of the group. Gift-giving is a huge part of the culture, but I don't know whether each person has an annual occasion when they receive gifts.
Do you have any ideas?
Cheers,
Jennifer
-- Jennifer Geard
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