Happy Birthday Bilbo!

still from the movie posted at :

http://www.theonering.net/scrapbook/source/Imladris.net

"IF MORE OF US VALUED FOOD AND CHEER AND SONG ABOVE HOARDED GOLD, IT WOULD BE A MERRIER WORLD. "

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit or There and Back Again

As we contemplate the celebration of Bilbo's (and Frodo's) birthday on Sept 22nd, corresponding with the first day of fall this year, you could hardly improve upon this quote from The Hobbit for spiritual refreshment.

The ancient practice of hospitality and gift-giving runs like a bright thread through the history of a dark world. To provide for the stranger was a sacred duty in the ancient world. And I don’t think there has ever been a culture in which food and music and giving things away were not near the center of the celebration of birthdays and other special occasions. From Anglo-saxon ring-giving to native North American potlatch, human hosts have forged bonds with their guests by serving them food and drink, then strengthend the bonds by sending them home with gifts.

One thing I especially love about hobbit birthdays is the ‘mathom’ tradition. Like many of our world’s cultures, hobbits in the Shire do not receive gifts on their birthdays, they give them away. This is a particular contrast with the solitary figure of poor Smeagol/Gollum. He speaks of the One Ring as his birthday present when he is in the cave with Bilbo; only later, in The Lord of the Rings, do we learn that this ‘present’ is not something he was given, but a precious thing he looked upon covetously and then took for himself with murderous hands.

A mathom is something handed down, passed around and given away. It is an appealing idea in our materialistically cluttered world, where we give lip service to Re-use as one of our modern three R’s. Bilbo was a wealthy hobbit and so could afford to give away the custom-made imported toys of “real dwarf make” (and you can be very sure they were ‘fair trade’. ;-) Bilbo also made sure to see that practical gifts, like tools and sacks of potatoes, were given to the poorer families in the neighborhood. But the more usual custom, in the comfortably middle-class Shire, was to recycle those unused odd whatsits and stray thingamabobs as presents, making sure that no guest went home from a party without something.

And then, when you had collected far too many of these knick-knacks, your own birthday would come around and you could de-clutter your hobbit hole by inviting a large number of guests. Don’t forget to fetch the Old Winyards out from the deepest cellar…and if perchance you have some unexpected guests, and the cakes run out, do remember your painful duty as hobbit host to go without!