Insta Birthday
Encouraging words
by Claire Law
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
A light-hearted look at birthday celebration trends, with the opportunity to consider how birthdays are a chance to say encouraging words to someone.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides accompanying this assembly (Insta Birthday) and the means to display them.
Assembly
- Show Slide 1.
Welcome the students. - Ask the question: Is there anyone here who has a birthday in December?
Invite students and staff to raise their hand if they were born in December. - Point out that statistically, 1-in-12 of us here will have been born in December, so it seems like a good time to consider how we celebrate birthdays.
So, we can keep up with trends, let’s see what ChatGPT says about ‘latest birthday celebration trends 2025’.
If it’s your birthday coming up soon, you may want to pay particular attention to what ChatGPT told the writer! - Firstly - Barbiecore Chic is a trending birthday theme.
Show Slide 2.
Here’s what that can look like: all-pink galas, oversized Barbie-box photo backdrops, glitter accents, and balloon arches. - If that’s not our thing, then we might be more drawn to ‘Wednesday’ Gothic Vibe.
Show Slide 3.
This trend is inspired by Netflix’s Wednesday, and embraces black-and-white balloon installations, moody candlelight arrangements, and themed spooky games. - Finally – ChatGPT also suggests a Wicked Magic theme.
Show Slide 4.
Wicked: For Good was released in November, and for those of us that like a sprinkle of fairy-tale drama, this whimsical, theatrical theme may be for us. - These party themes create an Instagram-able aesthetic. But I wonder how we really like to celebrate our birthdays. Often, there are traditional elements in a birthday celebration – gifts, cake, candles and singing ‘Happy Birthday’ for example. Some people like a big bash, with lots of colour, lots of people and lots of photos! Other people might prefer something a bit smaller, a bit less intense. In fact, some people prefer not to mark or celebrate their birthday.
So, how do you like to celebrate your own birthday? - There is a birthday tradition that we are going to think about today. It comes from the worldwide L’Arche community.
Show Slide 5.
L’Arche is the French word for ‘Ark’. The L’Arche organisation’s mission is to invite people with and without learning disabilities to build community together. There are L’Arche communities around the world, and each community is founded on a belief that people with and without learning disabilities are equals. - Show Slide 6.
In the L’Arche community, when it’s someone’s birthday, they get to choose what meal they want to share with their community. Their favourite dish is served, and at some point, during the meal, the ‘Pass the Candle’ tradition begins. A candle is passed around the group, and each person shares words of love, appreciation, and encouragement for the person being celebrated. They give the birthday person the gift of ‘good words’, expressing what they value about the person whose birthday is being celebrated. They connect with the birthday person and have chance to express why they are glad they were born.
Time for reflection
In this month of December, many of us here will be celebrating the birthday of Jesus. Perhaps it’s strange to think of Christmas as a birthday celebration, or a birthday party, but for Christians, that is what it is! At Jesus’ birthday party, a Christmas dinner, Christmas gifts and mince pies are commonplace.
Show Slide 7.
At Christmas time, Christians connect with the Biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus. In primary schools, many of us will have taken part in Nativity plays, based on these Biblical accounts. Maybe we remember being a shepherd, wiseman, angel or a sheep!
Of course, Insta didn’t exist back in the Biblical times, so we don’t have any actual pictures. However, the Bible accounts of Jesus’ birth can help us to use our imaginations to connect with the scene.
For Christians, Christmas, it is a chance to say ‘Jesus, I’m glad you were born’. A bit like the L’Arche tradition of ‘passing the candle’, Christmas provides Christians with a chance to pause and reflect on who Jesus is, and why Jesus matters to them.
Whatever our faith, let’s take this opportunity today to pause and reflect on a few questions:
Is there someone that we are especially glad that they were born?
What is it we value about them?
What ‘good words’ might we say to them?
It may or may not be their birthday, but we can still bring them to mind.
For some of us, this may be Jesus, or a key figure within your own faith tradition. For some of us, it may be a family member. For some of us, it may be a friend, a role model or even someone from history who inspires us. Let’s take a few moments of silence to call this person to mind and silently connect with why we are glad they were born.
Pause to allow a time for reflection.
Prayer
Dear God,
We are grateful for people in our lives who matter to us.
Please help us to remember and connect with why we are glad that they were born.
Help us to have people around us who share with us ‘good words’ of encouragement.
Help us to show other people that they matter and that we are glad that they were born.
This December, please bless our Christmas times, our holidays and our times with loved ones.
Amen.
