The names of some anniversaries provide guidance for appropriate or traditional gifts for the spouses to give each other; if there is a party these can be brought by the guests or influence the theme or decoration. These gifts vary in different countries, but some years have well-established connections now common to most nations: 5th Wooden, 10th Tin, 15th Crystal, 20th China, 25th Silver, 30th Pearl, 40th Ruby, 50th Golden, 60th Diamond. The tradition may have originated in medieval Germany where, if a married couple lived to celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of their wedding, the wife was presented by her friends and neighbours with a silver wreath, partly to congratulate them for the good fortune that had prolonged the lives of the couple for so many years and partly in recognition of the fact they must have enjoyed a fairly harmonious relationship. On celebration of the fiftieth the wife received a wreath of gold. These anniversaries were known as the silver wedding-day and the golden wedding-day. Over time the number of symbols expanded and the German tradition came to assign gifts that had direct connections with each stage of married life. The symbols have changed over time, for example in the United Kingdom diamond was a well known symbol for the 75th anniversary, but this changed to the now more common 60th anniversary after Queen Victoria’s 60 years on the throne was widely marked as her

2 Responses to “Wedding Anniversary”