(Excerpt from Tamal Krsna Maharaja's speech during Srila Prabhupada's
Vyasa-puja, Hungary, 1999-09-05)

… So for those of you who will have children and if you want to celebrate your child´s birthday then you should understand that on that day your child should give gifts to others. Srila Prabhupada heard one day that a cake was made in honour of one of our leading sanyassis in Mayapur on account of his birthday and Srila Prabhupada did not approve of this. He said that only the Acharyas should be honoured on their birthdays. Acharya, spiritual master… So what does that mean? Does that mean that we cannot celebrate the birthday of conditioned souls? No, we can celebrate them but then we must do so in a very special way. We will celebrate the fact that that conditioned soul took
birth and became a devotee and now on his birthday, or her birthday, has the opportunity to do extra seva and instead of trying to emphasize the enjoying spirit for that conditioned soul of thinking that he or she is very important and should be served by others… rather on that day that conditioned soul learns to be of service to all others. So on the birthday of your children you arrange a feast at the temple, offer nice foodstuffs to the deities and then you and your children distribute the prasadam to all the assembled Vaishnavas. This is how you celebrate a birthday. (end excerpt)