I know the month of May is full of special days for our family — there’s at least six family birthdays this month, and probably other family events that I’m not even aware of. But in our house, today, May 22, is known as Anniversary Day.
Wedding anniversaries have been celebrated for a long time — at least as far back as the Holy Roman Empire when husbands crowned their wives with a silver wreath on their twenty-fifth anniversary and a gold wreath on the fiftieth. Initially, only those two anniversaries were celebrated — the others generally passed unnoticed. During the 19th century it gradually became popular to celebrate other wedding anniversaries, probably because of the growing emphasis on family and home life.
The most important lesson to be learned from the history of anniversaries is that they started out as a reason to celebrate and relieve the stress of daily life. They are a way to remember and rekindle those feelings that made you decide to get married in the first place.
Kelly and Chris, along with Mike and Sue are celebrating their anniversaries today. I think it’s 16 years for Kelly and Chris… that would make it 21 years for Mike and Sue.
I’m not really into the Bible, but a short verse in Romans seems to provide some good advice…”Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
Happy Anniversary to the Anniversary Day celebrants.
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