HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATTI!
A Happy Birthday Panda post.
Someone in the office has a birthday, and you are the one who bought the cupcake. It has a single candle, which you light with a lighter borrowed from the car park smoker. Everyone sings. Nobody knows where to look. You get a card passed round for signing and it reaches you last. Every good line has gone: "Have a great one!", "Happy birthday!", "Cheers!" You write your name and a small, brave smiley face. Your mate's birthday message comes in at 7:02 am, and by lunch the replies are a wall of "Thank you for the birthday wishes :)". You sent yours late, so you get a thumbs up. You earned it. It's your own birthday, and the only decoration is a paper hat someone found in a drawer. You wear it through two meetings. Nobody mentions it, and you will not be taking it off. **Why it caught on:** the picture shows a giant panda in a zoo enclosure, wearing a party hat and resting a paw on a tree stump with a cupcake and a lit candle on it, a "Happy Birthday" banner and a wrapped present beside it. The photo is thought to be from a zoo birthday celebration, though its exact source is unclear. People started captioning it as a ready-made greeting card, with the panda wishing a named friend a happy birthday or making a pun on "bearthday". It spread because it is cute, it needs only a name and a pun, and it gets sent to someone who has to smile at it.