I don't think which year is the first year of your life is subject to debate in any culture. Deciding which day is your "first birthday" certainly allows for plenty of digression.

The question here is, are we counting events? Or are we counting the anniversaries of an event? Clearly, with wedding anniversaries, the wedding is a special event that (maybe) happens only once. Then when a year has passed without a divorce, we celebrate an anniversary of that special day.

In this culture, "birthday" is synonymous with "anniversary of birth." We are not born every year, only once.

But this appears to be another concept not obviously intuitive to everyone. Just ask the organizers of Hot August Nights. In 2002 they celebrated their "sweet 16." Was that the 16th HAN festival, or the 16th anniversary of the first festival? Is there a difference?

When do you celebrate the first controversary of a good controversy? And does anybody know where Kelly is?