Old money birthdays

Thinking like a leading family

So many of our rituals have degenerated. We’ve lost sight of their purpose. We’ve forgotten the fullness of their use. But they can be revived. You can revive them.

Take the humble birthday party: once the preserve of nobility, the ‘birth-day celebration’ took on a recognizable form in England in the Victorian era, while in America upper-crust WASP famil…