46 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?

Silver marks the 25th anniversary, the quarter-century; husbands traditionally crowned their wives with a silver wreath at that point, one of the oldest anniversary associations.

A ruby anniversary celebrates how many years?

A ruby anniversary marks 40 years of marriage; the stone's red colour comes from traces of chromium in the crystal.

A diamond wedding anniversary traditionally marks how many years?

A diamond wedding anniversary marks 60 years of marriage; Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip reached theirs in November 2007, sixty years after their 1947 wedding.

Which metal is associated with a 70th anniversary?

Platinum is the metal of the 70th anniversary; rarer and denser than gold, it was chosen to stand for the rarity of a seventy-year marriage.

What is the traditional gift for a first wedding anniversary?

Paper is the traditional first-anniversary gift; the flimsy material stands for the fragile, still-new bond of a first year, and modern lists add a clock.

What is the traditional gift for a fifth anniversary?

Wood is the traditional fifth-anniversary gift, symbolising a marriage that has taken root and grown strong; the modern American list gives silverware for the fifth.

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?

China was the material suggested for the twentieth anniversary; the early twentieth-century American gift lists added porcelain at twenty to the older silver and gold tradition.

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

Crystal was assigned to the 15th anniversary on the early twentieth-century American lists, a fragile but clear material marking a marriage well past its first decade.

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

In 1937 the American National Retail Jeweler Association issued an expanded list giving a gift for every year up to the 20th anniversary and for every fifth year after that.

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

The Germanic lands started it; 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?

Emily Post's 1922 book Etiquette listed the eight traditional anniversary gifts, from paper at one year to gold at fifty; later editions filled in the other years.

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

A couple can first receive the monarch's message at their 60th anniversary; messages also go out for the 65th, 70th and every year after that.

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

The president sends it: the White House Greetings Office mails a card to American couples celebrating a 50th or later anniversary, on request.

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

A papal blessing: the Apostolic Blessing parchment can be requested for a 25th, 50th or 60th wedding anniversary and is issued by the Office of Papal Charities.

Which gemstone is the traditional gift for a 55th wedding anniversary?

Emerald is the traditional 55th-anniversary gem; the green stone sits five years short of the diamond at sixty on the traditional list.

The word 'jubilee' comes from the Hebrew name for what object?

A ram's horn: 'jubilee' descends from Hebrew yovel, the ram's-horn trumpet blown to proclaim the biblical Jubilee year.

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

A diamond jubilee also marks a 75th anniversary; Emily Post's 1922 list put diamond at seventy-five years, and institutions use the 75-year sense far more often than couples do.

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?

George III held his jubilee on 25 October 1809, the day he entered the fiftieth year of his reign; he died in January 1820, nine months short of sixty years.

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

70 years: Elizabeth II acceded on 6 February 1952, so the Platinum Jubilee of 2022 marked seven decades on the throne, the first for any British monarch.

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

Jemma Melvin's lemon Swiss roll and amaretti trifle won the Platinum Pudding competition, chosen from around 5,000 entries as the official dessert of the 2022 Jubilee.

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?

Both marked the Bicentennial, 200 years of independence in 1976: the Freedom Train toured the 48 contiguous states from 1975 to 1976, and tall ships paraded into New York Harbor on 4 July 1976.

Which material marks a 90th wedding anniversary?

Granite marks a 90th anniversary; Karam and Kartari Chand of Bradford, married in India in 1925, passed that mark in 2015 in the longest reported marriage.

Which material is the traditional gift for an 80th wedding anniversary?

Oak is the 80th-anniversary material on the traditional list, the hardwood chosen for the strength and endurance of an eighty-year marriage.

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

The bridal tour: early 19th-century upper-class British couples toured to visit relatives who had missed the wedding, a custom the French copied from the 1820s as the voyage à la façon anglaise.

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

1546: the earliest record is John Heywood's book of proverbs from that year; the word hinted that love, like a moon, would wane after the first sweet month.

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

De Beers devised the diamond eternity ring in the 1960s as a way to sell the small Siberian stones it was obliged to buy from the Soviet Union under a supply deal.

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

A vein running straight to the heart was thought to start there, a belief that survives in the modern 'ring finger'.

Rubies and sapphires are both varieties of which mineral?

Corundum, crystalline aluminium oxide, is the mineral behind both: chromium traces make it ruby red, while iron and titanium give sapphire its blue.

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

Mogok, in Myanmar's Mandalay Region, supplied the world's finest rubies for centuries; its deep red 'pigeon's blood' shade became the benchmark for the gem.

Emerald is a green variety of which mineral?

Beryl, a beryllium aluminium silicate, is the mineral; traces of chromium or vanadium turn it emerald green, while the blue variety is aquamarine.

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?

Carbon: Lavoisier burned a diamond with focused sunlight in 1772 and got only carbon dioxide, and Smithson Tennant showed in 1797 that diamond is pure carbon.

Where were diamonds first recognised and mined?

India: diamonds were first mined from river gravels along the Penner, Krishna and Godavari rivers, and the Golconda trade supplied the world until the 1700s.

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

Pearl: Margaret descends from Greek margarites, 'pearl', itself thought to be an Old Persian loanword; the freshwater pearl mussel genus Margaritifera carries the same root.

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

Kokichi Mikimoto produced his first cultured hemispherical pearls in 1893 and turned cultured pearls into a global industry in the early 20th century.

The sapphire is the traditional gift for which wedding anniversary?

The 45th anniversary is sapphire on the traditional list; the blue corundum, also September's birthstone, sits between ruby at forty and gold at fifty.

Which planned London Underground line was renamed the Jubilee line in 1977?

The Fleet line, named for the River Fleet, was renamed the Jubilee line in 1977 to mark the Silver Jubilee; it opened in May 1979 coloured silver-grey on the map.

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

36 counties: the six home tours of 1977 began in Glasgow in May with record crowds and drew a million spectators 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 was billed as a flotilla of how many boats?

1,000: the Thames pageant of 3 June 2012 was billed as a thousand-boat flotilla and the largest on the river for 350 years; about 670 vessels took part, in heavy rain.

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

Paddington Bear, voiced by Ben Whishaw, shared tea and a marmalade sandwich with the Queen in the sketch that opened the Platinum Party at the Palace on 4 June 2022.

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.