Anniversaries, past and present A very warm and touching occasions that a couple can celebrate a wedding anniversary. It allows a family to gather to celebrate its debut, while allowing a couple to reconnect and remember why they fell in love in the first place. While these celebrations have become more popular in the 20th century, many people would be surprised to learn that anniversaries were recognized in medieval times.
In the past, many married couples who have lived in a region has the same wedding anniversary. This is because many small villages shared the same priest who did not have time to perform the number of marriages that people needed. The Church quickly decided that there would be only twice a year during the wedding ceremony would take place and that all who wish to be joined as husband and wife have been attending one of these services. This practice leads to many couples celebrating their milestone anniversary, the same day by celebrating together.
These married couples do not celebrate their birthdays, however, very often. In many countries, only the 25th and 50th wedding anniversary was celebrated. There are several reasons for these years, especially taking into account the special occasions. The 25th anniversary has been recognized as an opportunity to celebrate the couple's freedom of education of children. Like most couples have married in their early to mid teens, at the age of thirty-five (where most couples celebrate their 25th birthday), most of their children were considered adults. The husband would be a silver crown on the head of his wife as a symbol of their unity and their new stage of life they were about to begin.
The 50th anniversary was especially festive due to the fact that in medieval times the normal lifespan was about forty years for men due to disease and battle. Many women died at a much earlier age of death due to childbirth and getting sick because of pregnancies per year over several years. The idea that the husband and wife both survived until their 50th birthday has been remarkable. The anniversary was marked by the husband placed on her head a crown of gold his wife, symbolizing the value of this union has been long.
In the 1930s the company began to celebrate the 1st, 10th, 20th, 25th, 50th and 70th birthdays. It was at that time that certain elements have been designated as special gifts that anniversary was celebrated.
In today's society, it is normal for married couples to celebrate their wedding anniversary each year. At a time when fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce, many couples never reach their 10th birthday while others have the opportunity to reach their fifth. Thus, it may be safer to celebrate each year rather than waiting for an important anniversary that most people will never be reached. This explains why the festivities to celebrate the 25th anniversary and the 50th turned into huge business that most people are surprised that these couples stayed together for so long. In modern times, the realization of these anniversaries is an accomplishment in itself.
A heartening phenomenon in the world today is the growing number of couples celebrating their 75th and 80th birthdays. When they were young, these couples lived in the age when marriages were considered normal. Thanks to major improvements in medical care, these husbands and wives remained side by side and more than 90 years, some even reach more than 100 years.
The explanation of why we are celebrating wedding anniversaries can fix the image of the 80th anniversary, when a husband than 101 years, is slowly taking the hand of his wife of 99 years, with a wink eye in the middle.
Posted on March 2, 2010.