It's customary to celebrate a birthday with a cake, surrounded by tinsel and party favors. However, more and more women are swapping the traditional cardboard hat for hiking boots and opting for snacks in reusable water bottles. They're going off the beaten path in every sense of the word and celebrating this special day on well-trodden trails. It's a way of reinventing the day and making it a moment of introspection, far from hashtags and the opaque crowds of nightclubs.
A hike for a birthday at the summit of happiness
During our childhood, our birthdays were simply a small gathering in the garden. We'd sip homemade lemonade between games of musical chairs. Once we reached adolescence, it became a more serious affair. Our birthdays were an opportunity to prove ourselves to our friends and boost our popularity. Sometimes it took the form of a pajama party punctuated by gossip, marshmallows, and games of "truth or dare," other times it resembled a fancy-sized disco in the village hall.
Back then, we couldn't wait to turn 18 so we could toast with something other than sparkling apple juice and dance under disco balls. Now, as we get older, we yearn for a quieter birthday, far from phone cameras and staged stories. We want to spend this symbolic day enjoying brunch and playing cards or doing pottery in peace and quiet. Content creator @jasminmace offers another option: immersing herself in nature. She puts down the forks and stemmed glasses and picks up her walking sticks. Her plan for this birthday? To use her feet, not to hit the dance floor and set it ablaze, but to cover miles of elevation gain.
What some might consider a chore or a nasty hazing ritual is, for others, a suspended moment, a way to reconnect with what truly matters and leave a lasting impression. The idea isn't to break records or undertake this dizzying journey to fill an Instagram feed, but rather to create new memories, to embrace the unexpected, and to let go.
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Celebrating differently, without going overboard
With their colorful pointed hats perched atop their heads as a point of reference, the group of girls embarks on a leisurely stroll. But above all, they share a restful experience, the birdsong mingling with the sound of cowbells. It's a therapy session combined with laughter and contemplation. No one tries to fill the silence or break the ambient calm. Each welcomes it serenely, and there's almost something solemn about it. The smallest detail becomes a spectacle: a butterfly landing on a flower, a bird of prey gliding through the sunlight, a goat galloping across the meadows.
Obviously, the idea isn't to remain silent until dinner, except perhaps to conserve your breath. Besides, all the little incidents that punctuate the hike will later become memorable anecdotes, the story behind a "remember?" And this clearly breaks with what society expects of a proper birthday. In the collective imagination, a birthday inevitably involves drinking challenges, smart outfits, and a night out at a club. This party, supposedly a replica of the film Project X, then becomes a grandiose performance. However, the word "enjoy" has several definitions, and at a certain age, it no longer has the same meaning as at 18.
Because having fun doesn't necessarily mean drinking until dawn and singing until your voice gives out. Because a party doesn't have to be sensational to be unforgettable. Sometimes, eating a homemade sandwich with a view of rugged peaks and toasting with water bottles alongside friends is the best way to celebrate.
The luxury of planning nothing
One of the charms of this approach lies in its lack of pressure. No need to book a table six weeks in advance, find an outfit worthy of a story, or check that everyone is available at the same time. Simply choose a route suited to the group's level, pack some snacks, and go.
This simplicity can even become a form of luxury. For a few hours, notifications stay at the bottom of the bag, and the phone is used more to capture a landscape than to document every minute of the day. We walk, we chat, we joke, sometimes we're silent. And no one looks at the clock to know what time to move on to the next activity.
Hiking certainly doesn't replace all the ways to celebrate a birthday . Some might prefer to dance the night away, others to enjoy dinner at their favorite restaurant, or gather their whole family around a large table. Perhaps the key is precisely to stop considering just one way of celebrating as the norm.
After all, you don't necessarily need confetti to mark the occasion. Sometimes, a trail, a backpack, and a few friends are more than enough to make this new year a milestone to remember.
