A Compendium of Various Birthday Customs

Eliyahu Falk zt”l who discusses this very shailah. In Shu”t Machzeh Eliyohu (2:35) R’ Falk discusses if someone turns seventy during the Three Weeks if he may recite shehechiyanu. Although he is talking about turning seventy, the same arguments seemingly apply for turning sixty.

He mentions that the poskim say that one should recite shehechiyanu on a new fruit and also have in mind the birthday. He then brings that one may do so even during the Three Weeks as if one waits until afterwards, he will miss out.

A Compendium of Various Birthday Customs

Below is a compendium of various birthday customs (from the Admor of Lubavitch) as it is brought in the sefer Shaarei Halachah U’Minhag (Orach Chaim Vol. 2, 303).

• On the Shabbos beforehand, receive an aliyah. If the birthday falls on a day when the Torah is read, receive an aliyah on that day as well.
• Give extra tzedokah before Shacharis and Minchah. When the birthday falls on Shabbos or Yom Tov, give extra tzedokah on the previous day, and preferably on the day after.
• Study the Kapital Tehillim which corresponds to your new year. [This is your age plus one - e.g. Kapital 25 if this is your 24th birthday – since you are beginning your 25th year.]
• Increase your Torah learning on this day, both in the revealed Torah and also in Toras Chassidus.
• Do something for someone else – spreading the Torah and the wellsprings of life, as expressions of your love for a fellow Jew.
• Mediate, reminisce, and analyze your conduct over the past year. Consider which areas require improvement, and resolve to improve them. That is, think about how you behaved the previous year and commit to make a resolution to better yourself for the coming year.
• Accept upon yourself a specific extra precaution, or beatification of a mitzvah, like those resolutions that one commonly accepts on Rosh Hashanah.
• Celebrate by gathering family, friends and relatives – to express praise and gratitude to Hashem (and if possible, to recite a shehechiyanu blessing on a new fruit or a new piece of clothing) in rejoicing over the Torah and its mitzvos.