Do Klingons have birthday parties?

[torqey]

Do Klingons have birthday parties? 

[Qunchuy]

Why wouldn't they? Klingons seem to be portrayed on screen as party-loving folk.

[QoghtlhIH'u']

Whorf did celebrate (one of) his birthday(s) but that was probably a Federation event. Then again, there is a word in Klingon for birthday, so why not?
On this planet birthdays are not celebrated by all people, in Eastern Europe namedays are more important, so I was told by my Polish and Czech friends. But the Western European/American way of life popularized the birthday as such, I guess.

[qoSagh]

I think Klingons likely do celebrate Birthdays in some form, although they are probably nothing like human parties. Remembering that the Rite of Ascension is age based, so at least at certain ages the birthday is an important occurrence. I also think that the birthday of certain figures like the Emperor, or a House Leader would be important days to celebrate.

[QoghtlhIH'u']

According to Power Klingon the Rite of Ascension takes place in the seventh month of the fifteenth year. Now it might be that a Klingon year is seven months.
This brings up the issue of years and months as such. A year is the time it takes the earth to orbit the Sun full circle (or ellipse). A month is the time it takes the moon to orbit the earth, at least that was the original meaning of a month. But the Qo'noS moon exploded at some point in the Homeworlds history. How do Klingon years relate to Terran years and how does Klingon aging compare to Terran aging?
And what if you cruise throughout the Galaxy with Warp 1 or more? There should be relativistic effects known as the Twin Paradox.   

[Qunchuy]

And what if you cruise throughout the Galaxy with Warp 1 or more? There should be relativistic effects known as the Twin Paradox.   

Invoking warp fields removes that concern.

(The novel Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda McIntyre describes Janice Rand having made a very long trip at relativistic speeds using impulse drive after the ship's warp engines failed, making her biologically a couple of years younger than her chronological age of record.)

[Klythe]

    The Klingon Calendar is a complicated issue that has been discussed before in it's own thread.

    I don't think that there is canon evidence one way or the other as to whether proper Klingons(those that were not raise by humans and serve in Starfleet) celebrate birthdays other than specific right of passage.  So we can freely speculate, and decide for ourselves if and how they do.  Some Terrans have rightly pointed out the folly of celebrating the simple act of surviving a full orbit around the sun, though for Klingons who practice and live in a much deadlier society, survival is not nearly as trivial.  Though still I don't see Klingons celebrating mere survival.  "Survial and success" is what is admired and what some Klingons wish others in farewell.  Past successes would be honored regularly.  Whether this was on the date of the warrior's birth, new years or on the day of honor, or all three is perhaps a matter of choice for the warrior, and their family, allies and friends.

[ter'eS]

They have the word qoS "birthday".  Why would they have a special word for it if they don't recognize it in some way?

[qoSagh]

During some of my calendar research, I was directed to some FASA sources for the lengths of days, months and years. Granted that is no longer canon, it was the authoritative source for many of us at one time.

[tesseraktik]

In the episode TNG: "Parallels", Worf displays great discomfort at the idea of having a birthday party.  In particular, he says to Riker "Because it is my birthday, I assume that you or one of the others will try to mount an unexpected social gathering."  Riker acts appalled at the suggestion, saying "I would never do that to you!"...  ...but of course, being a treacherous off-worlder, he in fact does! [YouTube link]

Now, I know everybody here doesn't consider Worf to be the best reference Klingon (for he sits in soft chairs and mates with soft women), but later in that episode Troi says "I know Klingons like to be alone on their birthdays.  You probably want to meditate or hit yourself with a painstik.", so I'm guessing that this is true for Klingons in general, not just for Worf.
So, while I'm sure they recognize their birthdays, it seems they prefer to treat this as a solemn occasion; one which they prefer not to share with others.

If one wants to take Klingon culture to the comical extreme, I guess one could reserve birthdays to mourning that one has gone one more year without dying for the Empire

[QoghtlhIH'u']

In a universe where people, Terrans, Klingons or whatever, travel about at Warp speed, a birthday is quite a meaningless concept because there is no relation between biological life and planetary seasons.
However, in the pre-Warp era, but also for the non-space-faring Klingons or Terrans, years still have meaning. The explosion of Praxis might have had some influence on seasons though...

[Klythe]

later in that episode Troi says "I know Klingons like to be alone on their birthdays.  You probably want to meditate or hit yourself with a painstik.", so I'm guessing that this is true for Klingons in general, not just for Worf.

    Or you could assume that Worf is the only Klingon, she really doesn't have a clue about Klingon culture, all she can do is read Worf's moods.
She could be feeling rather awkward about it and could be making what she thinks is a joke in attempt to lighten the mood.

    I find myself disgreeing with QoghtlhIH'u'.  I don't think warp technology has anything to do with whether they celebrate birthdays or not.  Holidays tend to be celebrated more out of sense of tradition than any immediately meaningful reason.

[QoghtlhIH'u']

    I find myself disgreeing with QoghtlhIH'u'.  I don't think warp technology has anything to do with whether they celebrate birthdays or not.  Holidays tend to be celebrated more out of sense of tradition than any immediately meaningful reason.

OK I guess I am being to theoretical in the astrophysical and geophysical sense...

[tesseraktik]

later in that episode Troi says "I know Klingons like to be alone on their birthdays.  You probably want to meditate or hit yourself with a painstik.", so I'm guessing that this is true for Klingons in general, not just for Worf.

    Or you could assume that Worf is the only Klingon, she really doesn't have a clue about Klingon culture, all she can do is read Worf's moods.
She could be feeling rather awkward about it and could be making what she thinks is a joke in attempt to lighten the mood.

Well, she had already talked Riker out of holding a surprise party for Worf, even before he returned to the ship, so it doesn't seem she just gauged his mood then and there.  Furthermore, if that's what she was doing, I believe she'd have said "I know you like to be alone on your birthday.", rather than speak about Klingons in general.
However, I suppose one could assume that she was just taking what she knows to be true of Worf to be true of all Klingons, although that seems like a pretty big retcon.  Although I'm sure the "You probably want to meditate or hit yourself with a painstik." was a joke (particularly considering the way she said it and the fact that it made Worf give her a look that said "OH NO YOU DI-N'T!"), but if one wants a Trek canon source for how Klingons feel about birthdays, this seems a good indication that most Klingons like to observe theirs in solitude.

In a universe where people, Terrans, Klingons or whatever, travel about at Warp speed, a birthday is quite a meaningless concept because there is no relation between biological life and planetary seasons.

Well, this has never been very well-represented on Trek; the warp drive, as Qunchuy mentioned, apparently has magical powers that allow us to view the Universe as being nice and Newtonian

[QoghtlhIH'u']

In a universe where people, Terrans, Klingons or whatever, travel about at Warp speed, a birthday is quite a meaningless concept because there is no relation between biological life and planetary seasons.

Well, this has never been very well-represented on Trek; the warp drive, as Qunchuy mentioned, apparently has magical powers that allow us to view the Universe as being nice and Newtonian

There are the occasional time paradoxes on Star Trek, but indeed, the Warp speed travelling as such does not disturb the normal timeframe, as it should. In an Einsteinian Universe no intelligible stories can be told about civilizations that roam about at Warp speed ,,,

[qoSagh]

While a month (at least the Terran variety) is based on the length of time that it takes a given moon to revolve around a given planet, once that length is codified, the moon need no longer rotate at all. So in the case of Praxis, as long as there were still calendars to read from, it didn't matter to time keeping that the moon was no longer there.