Celebrations and festivities give rise to certain rituals strongly connected to significant linguistic phenomena as routine formulas. Nevertheless, only few works on the role of these units in the cultural context of birthday celebrations are done. The aim of this paper is an analysis of ‘wishing formulas’ in German in the context of birthday congratulations. Not only formulas as Gratuliere, Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag but also birthday songs are investigated. Birthday songs with their small text format are seen as formulaic texts. They are closely tied to the concrete situation of the birthday celebration and performed as serenades.The study shows that the songs are constitutive and indispensable for the ritual itself and they help to frame the celebration. They also have a thoroughly important and necessary function of shaping relationships - despite their structural formulaic nature and stereotypical and predictable content. The serenade contributes to the temporal expansion and performative exaggeration of the celebration.