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History
The celebration of specific materials in connection with specific wedding
anniversaries is something that does not go back very far except for the
Silver Wedding Anniversary (25 years) and the Gold Wedding Anniversary
(50 years).
These two anniversaries seem to have originated in the Germanic region
of Europe, probably about 500-700 years ago. It might seem strange that
such anniversaries could be celebrated, after all, didn’t people
die young?
There are two reasons:
People got married much earlier, 13 was not too young to get married so
a 25th anniversary could happen before a 40th birthday.
The second is that people make a mistake with "average lifespan"
calculations: The average lifespan for someone in medieval times might
have been 35, but the average was dragged down by the very high child
mortality rate. The fact is, if you made it past 20 then you were very
likely to live to be 70-80 years old, so a Gold Wedding Anniversary was
quite likely.
The reason why 50 and 25 are significant numbers is that they are a half
and a quarter of a century respectively. For that reason some countries
also celebrated 12 and a half years (half of 25), and that was a Copper
anniversary.
For more ideas, see our growing online
directory (click here) |
Apparently other traditions had materials associated with anniversaries
for years 1 to 5, and then every 5 years thereafter. With the 5th anniversary
being for Wood, apparently around 1875, not that long ago.
The Diamond wedding anniversary is a little bit confusing. Originally
it seems this was the 75th Wedding Anniversary however when Queen Victoria
had been on the British throne for 60 years she celebrated her Diamond
Jubilee. This was then adopted as the material for the 60th Wedding Anniversary.
Perhaps having a 60th celebration is more realistic than waiting another
25 years when the minimum age of the couple would be 100 years old.
Where celebrations are occurring the retail sector is never far behind,
just as the greeting card trade is behind the creation of many recent
celebrations (like Father’s Day). It was the American National Retail
Jeweller Association that created a list in 1937 giving a materials list
for every wedding anniversary up to the 15th and then every 5 years up
to the 60th. This list is now considered to be the definitive one.
There are other lists like the "modern", "flower"
and "gemstone" lists.
For more ideas, see our growing online
directory (click here)
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