Happy (39th) Anniversary to me!

Today is my husband and my 39th wedding anniversary. I am blown away by this achievement. We married in 1971 and I was 9 months pregnant – not unusual in the 70s! They (everyone including my parents) said it wouldn’t last and I must say I am proud of our marriage longevity.


It hasn’t been easy! Is marriage easy? If you have been married for over 20 years and you find it easy, I would love to know your secrets! We have 4 adult children. I sighed a big sigh when the youngest turned 18 and congratulated myself on getting them all safely to adulthood! They are all happy, healthy and have lovely partners. We are proud of them all, though we miss them tremendously – one in Hong Kong, one in Christchurch (NZ), one in Sydney and one here in Brisbane.

We also have 3 gorgeous grandchildren - aged 16 months, 3 years and 5 years. The older 2 live near us and we feel blessed that we get to see them every week, and they ‘sleepover’ at least fortnightly! So the outcome of our union has been VERY positive!

Over the past 39 years a lot has changed in the world and our world in particular. I went back to studies when our youngest started school and worked from graduation until 2 years ago in educational institutions in various capacities. I now work every second semester as a Sessional academic at a Brisbane Uni, teaching trainee teachers. My long-suffering husband supported me through full time study as I did later on with his studies which he started at age 50! He graduated with Honours 2 years ago.

So, I think, when considering the issues which have helped maintain our relationship it is friendship, support and encouragement (we hope that has also flowed on to our kids).

We had a pretty low-key celebration today. I got a card! I gave him some toiletries and 20 lotto scratchies! Unfortunately no big winners among them! He took the day off work – not to celebrate with me, but to go house hunting!

Our house is auctioned tomorrow. It has been the longest 5 weeks of my life – waiting for this auction. We are very worried about the outcome. The Brisbane housing market is very slow at the moment and where we move to next is totally dependent on the outcome of the auction! KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED!

So we looked at many homes today, some possible amongst them... we’ll have to see!

One of the lovely things we did before returning home was to have a lovely afternoon tea in a cafe at our local shopping centre. It is a long time since I had a silver teapot, a tea strainer and real tea leaves served to me at a cafe – I thoroughly enjoyed my cup of Earl Grey, it came at just the right time.

I looked up the list of anniversary gifts and the meaning of each year – we are in between the important years, I believe 39 is the year of ‘lace’ – I can’t see him with a lace hanky or socks!

History of Wedding Anniversary

Anniversary is a special occasion that celebrates the union of two human beings who lovingly share their joys and sorrows together. An anniversary symbolizes the timelessness of love. We owe our thanks to our forefathers who developed this beautiful idea of celebrating anniversaries. History of wedding anniversary reveals that in the beginning idea behind celebration of anniversary was to de-stress and break the monotony of everyday life. However, it is gladdening to note that the concept beautifully developed into the tradition of rekindling the feeling of love every year with a promise to fortify marital vows with trust and affection.
Need for Celebrations
Man has been a social animal since the beginning of civilization and has always welcomed an excuse to celebrate. In the beginning of the social and cultural life human beings began to celebrate the change of season but that was not enough. They wanted celebrations to go on round the year. So they began to celebrate wedding anniversaries too. At that time the date of anniversary was easier to remember as there was no individual ceremonies. A big get together was organized about twice a year and all the eligible bachelors were paired off with unmarried girls of marriageable age. The idea became an instant hit with the people. This simple tradition changed when individual marriage ceremonies began to take place.
Beginning of Milestone Anniversaries Celebration
In the medieval times only milestone anniversaries like 25th and 50th were celebrated. To mark the occasion of Silver or 25th wedding anniversary a husband would crown his wife with a wreath of silver. Likewise, he presented her a wreath of gold on a Golden or 50th wedding anniversary.
By middle-to-late 1930s, people began to celebrate 1st, 10th, 20th and 70th anniversary along with 25th and 50th. A gift for each of these milestone anniversary years was also decided by the society. The logic of presenting gifts was that stability deserves a reward and more the stability the greater should be the reward.

Celebration of all Wedding Anniversaries
Today, of course, people celebrate each year of the anniversary. Some even go to the extent of celebrating the landmarks days of their anniversary like 100 or 1000th day of their anniversary. In present times there are clearly defined list of traditional and modern gifts for each anniversary year. There is also a set list of stone gifts by anniversary yearand a list of flowers by anniversary.