Once upon a time, it was in Albuquerque, New Mexico; there were these three girls that worked at the college. They were really cool (they thought so, anyway)…
What else in this society is so universal and yet so purely ceremonial?
Every aspect of a birthday celebration is purely ceremonial, isn’t it? Birthday celebrations are not culturally universal.
How about a wedding “ceremony?” You can definitely get married without it. They’re done purely for the ritual effect.
Rituals have no doubt been part of human culture since before recorded history and while they can serve many purposes, in general, they meet emotional needs with actions that have symbolic value. In this light, a paper clown hat is to signify your participation the group and the event. If you’re willing to wear a clown hat and look silly for my entertainment, you must be my friend.
In most places, you can’t get married without some form of ceremony, even it is a five-minute job in city hall. But, yes, there are still some places where you can be married at common law.
I nominate funerals as a close approach to universal ceremonials. OK, funeral customs vary from society to society, but I’m going to hazard a guess that we don’t know of any human society without a ceremonial ritual to marke the death of a member.
Obviously, I didn’t mean universal in the sense of transcending cultures, but within contemporary American culture, I think party hats have achieved a sort of hegemony not even marriage and funeral rites have. Couples usually have some sort of ceremony when they marry, but not all, and many couples eschew all the traditional trappings of white dresses and cake. Same for funerals—there’s a standard, but not everyone follows it. But everyone wears birthday hats. Maybe not at every birthday party or even most birthday parties, but I doubt many people who grew up in the US have never worn one. (Except Jehovah’s Witnesses.)
I’m not saying it’s a profound observation, or even a meaningful one. They’re cheap, inoffensive, involve kids, and you can take them off after a few seconds and no one complains. Why would anyone refuse to ever wear one? But I still think it’s funny that in our modern, pluralistic, secular society with almost no universal traditions or taboos, we still have a highly specific piece of ritualistic headgear we routinely don for specific ceremonies, regardless of background or class, and no one even thinks about it. It doesn’t even have an origin story or established meaning. We assign origin stories and meanings to almost everything! We (as a culture) produce glurge that candy canes represent the J in Jesus and make up folk etymologies and false histories for every word and custom. But the humble party hat soldiers on, unnoticed and unremarked.
Said hat is very widespread in Trinidad, just saw some for sale the other day in a toy store I was dragged in.
Guessing it is probably the omnipresence of USA media that spreads it.
In Aus, the definition of a “defacto relationship” is given in section 4AA of the family law act
Since de facto relationships are, de facto, treated as fact, you see that the courts (and the govenment generally) don’t make a distinction. (But the government also ties itself into knots saying that, although people in relationships are married, they aren’t married, and the LGBTI community ties itself into the same knots saying the same thing.)
NZ is another place the same. Live together for a couple of years, and you’re married, whether you wanted to be or not.
And also for house of fun lyrics, and on youtube
Suitable for work. In Aus they used that song as a TV commercial aimed at young women! Obviously expected that nobody would understand the slang 
Party hats are available in AUS. Have not seen them in use this year, and I’ve been to several 5-6 yr parties.
I guess that’s the old ‘common law spouse’ thing. Doesn’t apply in the UK. To be a spouse here you have to go through a ceremony with witnesses and sign papers. A man can part from his wife, without divorcing her, and live with another woman for 30 years. If he dies intestate, his property goes to his wife.
There are pictures of my parents which were probably taken in the late 1950s, maybe early 1960s (definitely before I was born), and they’re wearing these hats. I’m assuming, though, that the occasion was a New Year’s Eve party, not a birthday. My father looks really uncomfortable. This was in Germany.