As for 1. Mine still was done on my cake. I take it yours wasn't?

I had a confirmation too, but that is, now-a-days, a much quieter event there, although I'm sure it was switched at one point. So you think it's constructed ritual to fill out space, basically? It's awfully graceful and accepted: I do find it interesting that a ritual like that would be so widely accepted, but many of the other rituals that people experiment with go nowhere. I have a feeling some socialite mother started it with her kid, and it caught on like wild fire- it's only the unplanned things that seem to work.

I don't know either- but I'll be doing some asking around...