'Do you know what today is? It's our anniversary'

Do you remember this Tony Toni Tone song from way back in 1993?  It was a pretty long song - the album version was over 9 minutes!

 Hubby and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary today.  Kind of.  He is in Wellington for work.  We preselected our own gifts (we bought them for each other and 'hid' them in the same place).  At the weekend my mum asked what the gift is for a 4th wedding anniversary.  I looked it up - appliances (modern) or fruit (traditional).  I'd chosen a stand baking mixer so inadvertently got that right!

 But then I wondered, why do we celebrate wedding anniversaries and how did it come to be that appliances are given on the 4th year instead of the 3rd?  The tradition appears to originate in Germany, where a husband would present his wife with a silver wreath after 25 years, and a gold wreath after 50 years.  As time passed, other milestones came to be celebrated too and retailers seized the opportunity.  By the 1930s a traditional list covered gifts up to the 75th wedding anniversary.  This list is still referred to along with modern alternatives. 

 As for hubby and I, well we're not so much into tradition, but I do like my new mixer!!

 Sources:  Te Ara and Martha Stewart

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