Blowing out birthday candles is a tradition that has been around for centuries, but this celebratory ritual may be going away, as one UVA alum is debuting a cleaner way of making a wish. “Nobody’s handing you the hamburger and blowing on it and being like, ‘Here’s your hamburger. I just blew on it for you,’” Mark Apelt said. When Apelt was out with friends before the pandemic, he had an idea.