So why is February 16th considered Umbraco’s birthday?
As our History timeline reveals, Umbraco is actually older than the age we’re officially celebrating on February 16th. Why?
Well, Umbraco 2.0 was released on February 16th 2005 for the first time as an open source CMS. This is considered the official birthday of the open source version of Umbraco.
Umbraco is technically a few years older when we look back at when Niels Hartvig first created it, but like the queen in the UK who has several birthdays, the one on the 16th of February is the one to remember and celebrate :-P Especially, since this is when the proper Umbraco open source community started.
Why celebrate the birthday of a product?
That's just weird, isn’t it?
Well, why not! it's part of our DNA/culture and part of that makes Umbraco what it is. Plus, it's an excuse to have a party and get together with our open source community, be silly and just hang-out - whether virtually or in person.
Epic Birthday celebrations!
5 years ⛴
Past parties have been things like a kids styled 5th birthday party. This party was arranged on a boat floating down the Thames in London. The 2010 birthday crew consisted of a mix of HQ employees, partners and community members, who, together, had a mini meetup to chat Umbraco and then went on to eat a festive birthday cake and have a drink or two… (dive into Douglas Robar’s epic Umbraco 5th Birthday pictures)
10 years 🕺
When Umbraco turned 10 in 2015, Umbraco HQ hosted a birthday party to celebrate and invited partners and community members to join! The 10 years were celebrated in style with a live gig in the iconic Umbraco HQ engine room from an electronic band. A drink or two were probably also consumed at this party (Douglas Rober was there again to capture this historic (rave) party)
Sweet 16 🌸
A sweet 16 is all about dressing up and having a blast! Unfortunately, this celebration took place during the worldwide Corona pandemic in 2021 which meant no physical party...But to our surprise and joy, that didn’t stop the birthday celebration or well wishes by the awesome Umbraco community. On Twitter, a storm of friendly birthday wishes appeared under the hashtag #UmbracoSweet16, and some even dressed up for the occasion (in their home office set-up). Now, that’s what we call an awesome community 🙌
Next big celebration?
18, perhaps? Let's see - one thing is for sure, we celebrate Umbraco as an open source product and its fantastic open source community every year on February 16th.