About Traditional Anniversary Presents - Information and Discussion

When purchasing anniversary gifts, you have 3 options - traditional anniversary presents, the modern counterparts to those traditional gifts, or something different altogether.

A lot of people like the idea of going with the traditional anniversary gifts because, not only are they well established, but there seems to be a certain stability that goes with tradition that is symbolic with marriage.

Sometimes, the traditional anniversary gifts can be interpreted in a variety of ways. For instance, for the 1st wedding anniversary, the traditional anniversary present is that of paper. Some people employ this idea in terms of airline tickets or gift certificates. Others buy books, prints, or have photo albums made.

The 8th anniversary traditional gift is flowers. Although some people simply buy arrangements of flowers for their spouse, or for their friends, others go a step further and have flowers pressed or buy flower sculptures.

So how did traditional anniversary presents even come about to start with?

Some gifts can be traced back all the way to the Middle Ages. The types of gifts are almost certainly based on folklore, as seen by the symbolism and observances that are placed on the gifts themselves.

The gifts can also be seen as an increasing investment in the relationship. For example, in the beginning, the gift is paper, which is fairly cheap depending on how you want to interpret it. After that, the value of the items increases steadily, until you get to the 50th wedding anniversary, where the traditional anniversary present is gold.

The 25th wedding gift is silver, which has apparently been around since the Middle Ages. During that time, it was traditional in the Germanic region of Middle Europe for a husband to give his wife a silver garland once they had been married for 25 years. The silver itself was meant to signify the harmony that the couple had presumably lived with during their time together.

Although the 25th and 50th anniversaries were the only ones recognized during this time period, over years, the tradition has expanded and now takes all of the wedding anniversaries into consideration.

During the Victorian times, the 60th anniversary was added when Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee in 1897 regarding her 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne. It was probably the Victorians, in fact, that added other significant gifts to the idea of anniversaries and traditional anniversary presents. After all, it was a time period that was very organized when it came to celebrations and symbolism, and the Victorians were very big on classification in general.

Nowadays, although there are still traditional anniversary presents associated with each anniversary, it's also common to give a modern counterpart to the gift as well. In addition, besides the material that is associated with the anniversary, there is usually a flower, gemstone, and even color that coincide with the anniversary as well.

Some people try to combine all of the traditional elements into one gift, or at least a few of them. This can make the gift fun and creative.

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