50 Fun Facts About Anniversary

A golden wedding anniversary marks how many years of marriage?

Linking gold and silver to anniversaries has been documented in Germanic countries since the 1500s.

Which anniversary is traditionally marked with silver?

It is one of the oldest of the anniversary associations.

A ruby anniversary celebrates how many years?

Rubies get their red colour from chromium; the same mineral in blue is a sapphire.

A diamond wedding anniversary traditionally marks how many years?

Couples in Commonwealth realms can apply for a message from the monarch at that point.

Which metal is associated with a 70th anniversary?

Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne were marked with a jubilee of the same name in 2022.

What is the traditional gift for a first wedding anniversary?

Wood follows at five years and tin at ten.

What is the traditional gift for a fifth anniversary?

In English-speaking countries the wood was cut on the day and later presented as a finished object.

What is the traditional gift for a tenth anniversary?

The list was extended in the early 1900s with straw for the second and candy for the third.

By the early 1900s, which material was suggested for the twentieth anniversary?

Crystal went with the 15th and linen with the 12th.

Which anniversary was assigned crystal in the early twentieth-century lists?

Today lists cover every year to 50 and beyond.

In what year did the American National Retail Jeweler Association expand the anniversary gift list?

It gave a gift for every year up to the 20th and every fifth year after that.

Gold and silver anniversaries have been documented since the 1500s in which part of Europe?

In English-speaking countries the gift tradition only became common in the 19th century.

Whose 1922 etiquette book listed gifts for anniversaries at 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50 and 75 years?

Later editions filled in the other years to create the so-called traditional list.

In the Commonwealth realms, from which anniversary can a couple first receive a message from the monarch?

Messages also go out at 65, 70 and every year after that.

In the United States, a couple can receive a card from whom for their 50th anniversary?

Australians get a letter from the governor-general at the same milestone.

Catholics can apply for what through their diocese for a special anniversary?

Milestones such as the 25th, 50th and 60th qualify.

In which region are 60th and 80th wedding anniversaries celebrated with wedding-scale festivities?

The Thirukadaiyur Temple in Tamil Nadu holds special pujas for anniversaries.

A silver jubilee marks how many years?

In India and Pakistan a silver jubilee film is one that ran 25 straight weeks in a cinema.

A diamond jubilee usually marks 60 years but is also used for which other anniversary?

The 75-year usage is more common for institutions than people, for obvious reasons.

How many European kings and princes were invited to Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee banquet in 1887?

The number matched the years of her reign.

Which British king celebrated his golden jubilee a year early, in 1809?

He died nine months short of what would have been a diamond jubilee in 1820.

Queen Elizabeth II's 2022 Jubilee marked how many years on the throne?

Beacons were lit in every Commonwealth capital for the first time.

What dessert won the official pudding competition for the 2022 Jubilee?

Jemma Melvin from Southport created the winning recipe.

What is the biblical Jubilee, described in Leviticus?

It followed seven cycles of sabbatical years.

Operation Sail and the American Freedom Train celebrated which US milestone?

The Freedom Train toured 25,388 miles across the 48 contiguous states over 21 months.

What share of American marriages last at least 50 years, per Bowling Green State University?

Long-married couples cite faith in each other, concessions and communication.

A 90-year marriage, the longest recorded, marks what kind of anniversary?

Karam and Kartari Chand married in India in 1925 and died in 2016 and 2019.

Guinness World Records published its first edition in which year?

It has since tracked both the longest marriage and the oldest married couple by combined age.

The modern honeymoon developed from which upper-class custom in early 19th-century Britain?

The French called it a voyage in the English fashion.

The word 'honeymoon' has been attested since which year?

Originally it may have implied that love, like the moon, would soon start to wane.

The diamond eternity ring was invented as a marketing idea in the 1960s by which company?

It was a way to sell the small Soviet diamonds the company was obliged to buy.

Roman betrothal rings were worn on the fourth finger because of a belief about what?

The idea survives in the modern 'ring finger'.

In which country were vow renewal ceremonies popular for decades before catching on in the US after the 1970s?

In 2016 Western Michigan University held a renewal for 1,201 couples at once.

Which US city planned a mass vow renewal for 1,000 couples as part of its 250th birthday in 2007?

Miami University topped it two years later with 1,087 alumni couples.

Rubies and sapphires are both varieties of which mineral?

Chromium makes it red; the red ones are sometimes called red sapphires.

Which valley in Myanmar was for centuries the world's main source of rubies?

The most prized shade is called pigeon blood.

Emerald is a green variety of which mineral?

Colombia has historically been the largest producer.

Which country is historically the world's largest producer of emeralds?

Rare trapiche emeralds with spoke-like inclusions come from there too.

Diamond is a crystalline form of which element?

Lavoisier proved it in 1772 by burning one with sunlight and finding only carbon dioxide.

Where were diamonds first recognised and mined?

They were found in river gravels along the Penner, Krishna and Godavari.

The English name Margaret comes from an Old Persian word for what?

The pearl-oyster family is named Margaritiferidae for the same reason.

Which Japanese entrepreneur is associated with the early large-scale culturing of pearls?

He did not invent pearl culture, but he commercialised it in the early 20th century.

The sapphire is the traditional gift for which wedding anniversary?

A sapphire jubilee marks 65 years, and 2017 was the sapphire jubilee of Elizabeth II's accession; the stone is also September's birthstone.

Which Pacific island nations opened the Queen's Silver Jubilee Commonwealth tour in 1977?

Back home the Fleet line of the Underground was renamed the Jubilee line and coloured silver, though it did not open until 1979.

How many UK counties did the Queen and Prince Philip visit on their three-month Silver Jubilee tour in 1977?

The trip began with record crowds in Glasgow, and a million spectators turned out in Lancashire alone.

Which guitarist opened the 2002 Golden Jubilee 'Party at the Palace' by playing the anthem from the palace roof?

Paul McCartney closed the night; the concert showcased 50 years of pop while the previous evening's Prom at the Palace featured classical music.

The 2012 Diamond Jubilee river pageant on the Thames featured roughly how many boats?

It was billed as the largest flotilla seen on the river in 350 years, and heavy rain set in partway through the event.

In a short film for the 2022 Platinum Jubilee, the Queen took tea with which fictional character?

Voiced by Ben Whishaw, the bear was based on the 2014 film; the sketch was one of the very few times the Queen acted on screen.

What happened for the first time in every Commonwealth capital during the 2022 celebrations?

Beacons had long been lit across Britain for jubilees; extending them to every Commonwealth capital was new.

After a Canadian couple's 50th, how often can they get a further governor-general message?

In Australia the governor-general writes for the 50th and every anniversary after, and state governors and MPs may add their own salutations.