1 . Birthday facts

Many centuries ago, birthdays were considered a time when the bad spirits were able to harm you. It was believed that you should have your friends and family around you    1     their good wishes and present-giving would keep the bad spirits away. People also believed that, by lighting candles, they were sending a signal or wishes to the gods.

Later on, candles started     2     (use) on birthday cakes. One story about the beginnings of the birthday cake is    3     it started with the Greeks, who made round cakes     4    (represent) the full moon for their moon goddess . They also placed candles on the cake to make it light, again like the moon.

However, the Germans are said to have first used cakes and candles. They used a sweet cake and they put a large candle in the centre of the cake to mean “the light of life”.

The “Happy Birthday” song is more than a hundred years old. The music was written in 1893 by two sisters, Patty and Mildred Hill,     5     were schoolteachers in Louisville, Kentucky. The music was first used as a morning greeting to their students     6    (entitle)“Good Morning To All”. In 1935, the words legally     7    (belong)     to the Hill sisters, and the copyright has been bought and sold for millions of dollars ever since. The present copyright is owned by Warner Communications. They bought it in 1989    8     more than $22 million.

‘Happy Birthday to you’     9     (recognize) around the world and has been translated into many different languages. And children still love to make new versions of     10    .