Each year in November, U.S. Marines gather to celebrate their founding. Whether in formal dress or in the uniform of the day, from ballrooms to field tents to hangars, these celebrations include long-standing traditions such as cake-cutting, toasting absent comrades, and the reading of the Commandant’s birthday message.
On November 10, 1775, a corps of Continental Marines was created by a resolution of the Second Continental Congress to serve with the Continental Navy. Since that day, Marines have continued to distinguish themselves on many battlefields and foreign shores in war and in peace.
Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is considered the birthplace of what would become the U.S. Marine Corps. After the Revolutionary War, the Continental Marines were disbanded. The Corps was re-established on July 11, 1798. Since that time, Marines observed their re-creation every year on July 11, however, with little pomp or pageantry.
In 1921, Commandant John A. Lejeune issued a directive ordering that the original birthday of November 10 be declared the official Marine Corp birthday. This order also directed that the Commandant’s birthday message, which outlined the Corps’ history, mission, and traditions, to be read at every birthday celebration.
The first formal birthday ball was celebrated in 1925. In 1952, the celebration was formalized and standardized by Commandant Lemuel C. Sheperd, Jr, and instituted the cake-cutting ceremony. While 1952 wasn’t the first year that cake was cut, it was the first year that included the specific elements of the cake-cutting ceremony.
As is custom, the first piece of cake is given to the oldest Marine present and the second piece is given to the youngest Marine present, thus symbolizing the line of tradition – continuous and never-ending – from the old Corps to the new.
The Marine Corps Birthday Ball endures because it serves as a celebration of history, identity, and camaraderie on three levels: remembrance, reaffirmation, and renewal.
First, it’s a remembrance, of honoring fallen Marines and preserving the lineage of battles that shaped the Corps. Second, it’s a reaffirmation that re-teaches each generation what it means to wear the Eagle, Globe and Anchor (the Marine Corps emblem), and reinforces that Marines are part of something greater than themselves and must make themselves worthy of those who came before them. And, finally, it’s an act of renewal, which calls every Marine to carry forward the character and commitment of the Corps, and strengthens the bonds of brotherhood among active duty, veterans, and their families.
And more than the cake or the pageantry, and no matter where the celebration takes place, the real heartbeat of the Marine Corps birthday is the preservation of a shared identity through time, through hardship, and through change, and the unbroken promise that Marines will remain “always faithful. (Semper Fidelis).
To all Marines, Happy Birthday and Semper Fi!
