Happy Birthday to You is the most recognized song in the English language according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The melody was composed in 1893 by sisters Mildred and Patty Hill as Good Morning to All, a classroom greeting song. The birthday lyrics were added later. The song was under copyright claim until 2016, when a federal court ruled the copyright claim invalid — meaning restaurants that had been paying licensing fees for decades had done so unnecessarily.

The tradition of putting candles on birthday cakes originates in ancient Greece, where honey cakes with candles were offered to Artemis, goddess of the moon. The candles represented the moon's glow. The modern practice of blowing out candles and making a wish appears to have developed in Germany in the 18th century. The three separate cultural contributions — cake, candles, and wish — merged into the current convention over about 2,000 years.