Traditional anniversary gift symbols history

The traditional anniversary gift symbol is the material or theme that is traditionally associated with a specific anniversary of the year you married.

The term Traditional Anniversary gift is given purely because a Modern Anniversary gift list was produced and a way was needed to identify the two separately.

The traditional anniversary gift list is the original list and represents the symbols associated with each anniversary year in popular folklore prior to the modern list being issued.

Early References

The earliest know references to wedding anniversary symbols or materials as gifts are to Silver (25th Wedding Anniversary) and Gold (50th Wedding Anniversary).

These originate in middle Europe (Germanic Region) and involved the spouse giving his wife a silver garland when they had been married for 25 years.

Some European countries also celebrate Twelve and a half years of marriage using Copper as the Anniversary Symbol.

In the german language the celebration translates from ‘Silberne Hochzeit’ meaning Silver Wedding and from ‘Goldne Hochzeit’ meaning the Golden Wedding which is how these terms have been formed.

A point to note is that it is deemed a ‘Silver Wedding’ or ‘Golden Wedding’ and not a Silver Wedding Anniversary; as this would imply you are celebrating the anniversary of your Silver Wedding which occurs after 26 years of marriage!

We have found references to materials associated with specific years which follow the traditional anniversary lists for the first 5 years of marriage and then every 5th year up to 25th and then 50th and 75th.

The earliest reference we have found other than the Silver or gold is to the 5th anniversary (Wood) which implies this became the material for that anniversary around 1875.

There are currently 2 Diamond Anniversaries, one at 60 and one at 75 years. The 75th anniversary is the original traditional diamond anniversary with the 60th being added when Queen Victoria (English Empire Monarch) celebrated her Diamond Jubilee on her 60th anniversary of accession to the throne in 1897 and this has since been adopted as an appropriate Wedding Anniversary also.

At first glance seems logical however Queen Victoria’s Husband died in 1861 21 years after they got married thus linking the 60th Wedding Anniversary to the Diamond Jubilee may have made one not amused!

In 1937 the American National Retail Jeweler Association issued a more comprehensive list which associated a material for each Anniversary year up to the 15th Anniversary and then each fifth year after that up to the 60th Anniversary.

Additional lists are issued from time to time however the one quoted below is more or less the de-facto list for the Traditional names of Wedding Anniversaries.

We’ve more details on the history of gift giving for wedding anniversaries on our blog post

References:

• The American National Jeweller Association
• The Morning Chronicle (Nov 9 1849 Issue 24978 & May 5 1834 Issue 20184)
• The Era Sunday, Dec 29 1839 Issue 66

Traditional Anniversary Gift Symbols

Longest Married Couples

Few couples celebrate more than the 80th anniversary and only 1 couple have achieved a 90 year marriage!

Wikipedia have started a page on long marriage here: Longest Marriages

In Australia the longest marriage on record is that of Wesley Arney (Wes) and his wife Vanetta who in 2003 celebrated their 79th anniversary
unfortunately Wes passed away the same year. A brief news story on their marriage is available here.

In Britain the longest marriage on record was a couple from Bradford who celebrated their 87th Wedding Anniversary together in
January 2012 (News story here).

If you know a UK couple celebrating their 80th or greater wedding Anniversary we would love to hear from you.