Wedding Anniversary

Broader groups in society, especially the families, and even more especially the children of such a couple, may help to celebrate such occasions.

Retailer s (especially Jeweller s), sensing a profit opportunity, have encouraged gift-giving on such wedding anniversaries, and may often suggest a hierarchy of types of gifts to reflect the importance of longer years of marriage (and perhaps of greater ability to purchase more expensive gifts).

STANDARD LISTS

Standard associations of such anniversaries have come to include:

24th anniversary: Musical Instrument

25th anniversary: Silver

30th anniversary: Pearl

35th anniversary: Coral

40th anniversary: Ruby

45th anniversary: Sapphire

50th anniversary: Gold

55th anniversary: Emerald

60th anniversary: Diamond

A sample of a slightly more ambitious (but less-widely recognised) list, exhibits the practicality of certain cheap but frequent gifts in the early years of marriage, combined with the ratcheting up of value:

The following wedding anniversaries are the same for American, English and Modern:

40 Ruby

45 Sapphire

50 Gold

55 Emerald

60 Diamond

65 Blue Sapphire

70 Platinum

75 Diamond (historically) Or Double Diamond (contemporary) -Diamond anniversaries were very rare occasions usually reserved for the 75th anniversary. Queen Victoria's 1897 celebration of a Diamond Jubilee for the length of her reign popularized the use of diamond for 60 years.

80 Oak

Other traditions introduce specific gifts for every single anniversary; in certain German traditions some half- and quarter-anniversaries are also celebrated, and the suggested gifts can become quite bizarre and extravagant.

SEE ALSO

Golden Jubilee

Hierarchy Of Precious Substances

EXTERNAL LINKS

Anniversary Gifts - Compiled from discussions on alt.wedding

Information About

Wedding Anniversary