What are Wedding Anniversaries?

You may have come across people celebrating birthdays and other special moments which they term as anniversaries. Birthdays, anniversaries are important dates of the year that are celebrated in various ways by people all over the world. They are an important aspect of life, and hence, they remind us of an event that holds a lot of meaning for us.

Whether it’s a birthday, an engagement, wedding, or death of a loved one, it’s a chance to stop and ponder on the relationship and importance that the particular event held.

So, in other words, it gives us a chance to look back on the past events and either celebrate them or ponder over them. Anniversaries have existed for a long time, and people worldwide use various objects as gifts or offerings to remember the occasion.

One such anniversary that is in the spotlight is the one that marks and celebrates weddings; a wedding anniversary. Wedding anniversaries are all about the happy couple enjoying their moments of bliss and romance when they tied the note and said their vows in front of the entire audience. Let’s look into what exactly wedding anniversaries are and how they originated.

Evolution of a Wedding Anniversary

Did you know that Germans were the first to invent the concept of a ‘wedding anniversary?’ It began in the Middle Ages when the German state fell under the control of the Roman Empire, which covered a large part of Europe. At that time, husbands would bring a silver wreath for their wives on the 25^th year of their marriage. Similarly, for the 50^th year, husbands would get a golden wreath. This gifting began the tradition of celebrating and marking the silver and golden jubilee of wedding anniversaries.

So whenever you see the term Silver and Golden jubilee, now you know that it came from the Germans themselves. This tradition that spread through Europe was brought to New Zealand as well. During the early 20^th century, there was a growing emphasis on couples, family, and home life. This trend caused people to celebrate wedding anniversaries on the 1^st, 5^th, 10, 15^th, and the 20^th instead of every 25 years. The rise in celebrating wedding anniversaries after every five years is due to gifts.

The Rise of Gifting on Wedding Anniversaries

With the possibility of gifting your significant other with a present or jewelry, businesses and entrepreneurs jumped on the bandwagon to create a revenue opportunity in the form of gifts that we see today. On the bright side, this increased the variety of products that people could use as wedding anniversary gifts which you see all around you catering to different needs of various couples.

The first industry to benefit from the gifting culture in wedding anniversaries was the jewelry sector. It comes as no surprise that in 1937 American National Retail Jewelers’ Association (ANRA) had created an entire list of the different types of jewelry that husbands could gift to their wives, prompting the celebration of wedding anniversaries each year. This particular list became the hallmark of reference for today’s wedding anniversary jewelry shopping with slight modifications.

So the next time you are looking to buy a wedding anniversary gift, you might want to check out the jewelry options to avoid upsetting your spouse.

What are the Years of Wedding Anniversaries Called and their Associated Gifts?

Historically speaking, wedding anniversaries were only celebrated twice in Medieval Europe. However, despite the rise of gifting causing people to celebrate their anniversaries annually, certain titles and gifts are associated with completing a specific number of years with your spouse. So in different countries and cultures, there is a different name and gift associated with each year.

For Americans, the list of traditional wedding anniversary gifts on the particular year that the couple has completed. We’ve depicted a list for the first ten years that you might find helpful for this particular need.

• Year 1: Paper-based gift. Wedding anniversary cards or a gift wrapped in beautiful gift wrapping paperwould align with the traditional theme of the first year. (Amazon ASIN #B088WVW8J5)
• Year 2: Cotton. Getting matching cotton robesfor a relaxing spa time would perfectly fulfill the cotton gift that traditional states are gifted. (Amazon ASIN #B07BQZB5GJ)
• Year 3: Leather. Get any leather-based accessory; we’d recommend thinking a little out of the box and getting a leather framecustomized to your 3^rd (Amazon ASIN #B01KBJMC64)
• Year 4: Flowers or Fruit. Flowers are a much better and more romantic option than fruits. So if your spouse swoons over flowers, we’d recommend getting them this artificial bouquet. (Amazon ASIN #B07JH1HVFB)
• Year 5: Wood. The 5^thyear gets celebrated since the 20^th century, so this marks reliving your wedding by getting wood inlaid tungsten carbide wedding rings. (Amazon ASIN #B00IK8UT32)
• Year 6: Iron. Iron may seem like an unpopular choice for a wedding gift but believe us, a gift with an iron element gives a whole new meaning to ‘forged in iron’ like this handmade iron love card(Amazon ASIN #B08F6W1B6T)
• Year 7: Wool or Copper. If you opt to incorporate wool and it’s not the winter season, try going for a Teddy Bear with wool rose gift. (Amazon ASIN #B00JW9PGFE)
• Year 8: Bronze. You might want to opt for jewelry or a frame, but here is another gift you can get for your lovely home, a bronze couple sculpture. (Amazon ASIN #B07BGVR2X6)
• Year 9: Pottery. Crockery is your go-to option to celebrate this year, so we’d recommend getting this heart-shaped pottery bowl. (Amazon ASIN #B00XWDMEGU)
• Year 10: Tin. It’s a decade worth of celebration, and we think that this gift made of tinwould be perfect for your spouse. (Amazon ASIN #B08VJ5SQT8)

Our Final Thoughts

By now, we hope that not only would you understand the significance of wedding anniversaries, but you would know the different types of gifts that you can get for your life partner.