Birthdays, and Breechings, and Bed Parties—Oh, My!
From Everyday Shakespeare by Caroline Bicks & Michelle Ephraim
July 7, 2025 · 40 min · Season 3
About this episode
The episode explores how families in Shakespeare's time celebrated children's milestones and compares them to modern celebrations.
We've gone a little nuts when it comes to celebrating our kids' milestones, like their birthdays and graduations. We've even started inventing new ones (hello, Bed Parties??), which means we're buying even more party swag. In this episode, we explore how families in Shakespeare's day celebrated their kids' big rites of passage. Did they make themselves crazy planning the best christening party ever? How did they mark little William's gold medal in pee-wee fencing? What did life look like before bouncy castles and Gender Reveal cakes?
People in this episode
Hosts: Caroline Bicks, Michelle Ephraim
Topics covered
- celebrations
- milestones
- Shakespeare
- family traditions
- party planning
Keywords
- birthdays
- graduations
- Shakespeare
- celebrations
- family traditions
- party planning
- Bed Parties
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Shakespeare
More episodes of Everyday Shakespeare
- Shakespeare in Purgatory · January 9, 2026 · 49 min
- Power Couples from Instagram to Alexandria · September 15, 2025 · 40 min
- Filmmaker Timothy Bogart on his new film, "Juliet and Romeo" · May 5, 2025 · 30 min
- Winter's Tales · February 13, 2025 · 32 min
- "To track, or not to track?" · December 2, 2024 · 27 min
- Childless Cat Ladies of Yore · October 28, 2024 · 36 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Everyday Shakespeare podcast page.