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Gone are the days of giving paper or cotton for a first or second anniversary. With the changing times, the anniversary gift etiquette has changed. As society moves more towards affluence, so do the gifts that define us. Of course, you can always just choose something you deem appropriate, something that is truly thoughtful and from the heart. The tradition of giving paper, cotton and leather on the first three anniversaries was appropriate in times that these materials were essential for running a household. In modern times, the gifts are more appropriate to the needs and desires of a modern household. For instance, the modern first anniversary gift is a clock, the second anniversary gift is china and the third anniversary gift is typically glass or crystal. For the fourth anniversaries we give appliances rather than fruit or flowers, and silverware has replaced wood on the fifth anniversary. Wood has not been dropped, though; it has just moved on to the sixth anniversary substituting candy or iron. However, it is usually in the form of decorative or antique pieces rather than utility objects like a wooden chair. With the increasing focus on work, desk sets have become a favorite seventh anniversary gift instead of copper and wool. The tradition of giving pottery or bronze for the eighth anniversary has been replaced by lace and linens, marking our move away from utilitarian tastes to an increased sense of luxury. And instead of gifts made of willow, we now give leather gifts on the ninth anniversary. More traditional anniversary gifts slowly worked their way up to the trappings of jewelry, not arriving until the 25th anniversary. The more modern take, however, is to mark the 10th anniversary with diamond jewelry. It does not need to be anything extravagant, but the jump to diamonds at the 10th probably speaks to the increase in the divorce rate, it's an accomplishment to stay together for ten years in today's world. Generally, modern anniversary gifts are far more expensive than their traditional counterparts. Fashion jewelry is given on the 11th anniversary and pearls, traditionally given on the 30th anniversary, are now given on the twelfth. The 13th anniversary is marked by textiles or furs, the 14th by gold jewelry, and the 15th by watches for him and her. There is a skip to the 20th anniversary from the 15th as far as gift giving goes, and for the 20th it is platinum. But after that the modern anniversary gifts start to fall back in line a little bit with the more traditional, even though traditionally the 20th was a gift of china. For both 25th anniversaries, the gift is silver, but at the 30th there is some difference: modern is diamond and traditional is pearl. The last variance comes at the 35th. Modern gift giving is jade while traditional was coral. The rest of the anniversary gift giving etiquette is more or less the same for both modern and traditional: ruby marks the 40th, sapphire the 45th, gold the 50th, emerald the 55th and diamond the 60th.
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Mia Quong is the owner and operator of F anniversary, the web's premier resource for information about anniversary, For questions or comments about this article visit: www.ranniversary.com/articles Click here to get your own unique version of this article from the Unique Articles Submissions Service
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