Busy schedules leave less time for gatherings, but some groups of friends are finding ways to celebrate multiple birthdays at once without giving up the personal touch of an individual celebration.
Joint birthday cakes are gaining attention online as an "efficient" way among friends who are seeking a more convenient and enjoyable way to mark their special occasions.
The celebrations bring together friends whose birthdays fall in the same month, as well as those born in different months who choose to celebrate together.
The cakes are often designed with a section for each friend, featuring their birth date, name or a simple illustration of their face. Each section can also reflect their personality, from a favorite character or color to other personal preferences.
Picking out designs and deciding how to personalize each piece can be part of the fun, turning the cake itself into a shared project and adding another layer of memory to the celebration.
As friends sing the birthday song together, they each take turns blowing out the candles on their section. Some groups cut the cake into individual portions, while others take a more fun approach, tearing it apart by hand.
"We've been too busy adulting, so we just decided to celebrate all our birthdays together," one online user wrote, describing the idea behind the gathering.
The trend comes as making time for social gatherings can be difficult for people juggling work and other commitments.
According to an OECD report, South Koreans worked an average of 1,833 hours in 2025, down 32 hours from the previous year, but still 96 hours above the average of 36 member countries. South Korea ranked sixth.
mjcha@heraldcorp.com
