Love grows more tremendously full, swift, poignant, as the years multiply - Zane Grey
Anniversaries are always a special occasion. They give a couple the chance to look back at and celebrate, their lives together and the love that they share.
Of course, everyone knows about the big anniversaries, the tenth, twentieth, and even fiftieth, that are honored with names and all sorts of historically relevant, and significant conventions and gifts.
But what about the anniversaries and the years that slip and fall in between the more recognized celebrations?
Don’t they matter just as much to the couples who have embraced the hard times as well as the good, who have seen their share of both sadness and joy?
Of course, they do, and that’s why we’re here to help you find a perfect anniversary gift for the couple celebrating forty-seven years of marriage.
While the forty-seventh anniversary holds no special titles or meanings in the English speaking world, it does have a special place in the hearts of many European countries, and many of them have traditional gifts and presents for couples who reach this milestone.
Why this particular anniversary doesn’t seem to have the same relevance, culturally and historically, here in the US as it does elsewhere is mystifying.
Maybe it was omitted from the original gift lists because it wasn’t a multiple of five or ten, which were seen as being, rightly or wrongly, more meaningful at the time.
A Modern Celebration Of The Forty-Seventh Anniversary
It’s an omission that in more recent years has been amended and corrected, as the institution of marriage is celebrated at every milestone, and each year and every year that a couple spends together, and each and every anniversary is seen as being just as important as the last, or the next.
So even though it doesn’t share the same sort of historical legacy as the twentieth, thirtieth, or fortieth anniversaries, the forty-seventh anniversary has recently been ascribed its own entry in the list of traditional anniversary gifts.
And while it might seem a little surprising, for a couple who have spent more than four and half decades together and cherish the quiet time that they spend together as much as they do the moments when they’re locked in conversation, it isn’t really a revelation that the modern gifts that are seen as being a perfect way to celebrate a forty-seventh anniversary are books.
The Twenty-First Century Tradition - Giving Books As Gifts
In literary terms, ninety seventy-year, the year in which a couple celebrating their forty seventh-anniversary were married, was a game-changer.
An incredibly tumultuous year, it saw one of the world’s greatest living and critically beloved authors have his first book published.
Stephen King’s Carrie was the story of an outsider who was forced to take center stage on her prom night and the tragic consequences that followed, and while the story might not seem like an ideal way to celebrate an anniversary, culturally it changed the world and the way in which authors would be perceived from that point on
It was also the year in which Bob Woodward and Carl; Bernstein finally released their expose of the dirty tricks campaign that Richard Nixon had instigated in order to ensure political victory in the next election, All The President's Men.
Again, it was a book that changed the political landscape in America forever and, like King’s debut, serves as a perfect way to remind the couple in question of the interesting times that they lived through and were married in.
Newlyweds are sticklers for date nights and keeping the passion alive and in nineteen seventy-four a book that altered the way the Summer blockbuster was seen by film critics and the movie-going public alike, was originally published.
Peter Benchley’s Jaws wasn’t just a thriller about a shark, it was the blueprint for the film that would shatter box office records and stop an entire generation of beachgoers from ever venturing into the ocean.
And there’s every chance that the couple whose anniversary you’re celebrating spent one of their first date nights as husband and wife at the movies watching Benchley’s tale unfold on the big screen in all of its glory, and the book is the perfect way to remind them of the opening moments of their forty-seven-year journey.
Some couples prefer more literary endeavors and for an anniversary in which books have taken center stage, it might be more fitting to present the couple in question with the complete works of the world’s most famous, and finest playwright William Shakespeare.
Or if they’re not particularly passionate about, or have very little interest in the theatre, then they might be more inclined to enjoy a compendium of Mark Twain's, the man that most academic and critics reward as being America’s most consummate writer, novels.
With a wealth of literature available, the possible book-centric gifts for the couple celebrating their forty-seventh wedding anniversary, are nearly endless.
All that you have to do is apply what you know about them to your literary search and the answer to your gift based conundrum will present itself in short order.
RUNNER UP
It Isn’t Just About Books
Even though the modern idea for forty-seventh-anniversary gifts revolves around the giving of books, there is a more enshrined, traditional idea that the anniversary (like so many others) should have its own stone.
If it was just an idea that had appeared in internet-based chat rooms or on social media or indeed had no historical precedent whatsoever then we would have ignored it and given it no credence.
But the idea that the forty-seventh anniversary should be celebrated with jewelry and that should have its own gemstone is one that has thrived for decades in both Spain and Italy.
In both countries, it’s traditional for the husband to give his wife jewelry that includes an amethyst, and whether that’s a ring, a pendant, or a bracelet, it’s become a way for one half of the couple to show their love for the other.
Where the tradition comes from or how it began seems to have been forgotten over time, but it’s always nice to embrace the conventions of the old world, give them new meaning and show the person that you have loved for nearly half a century how much they really mean to you.
And nothing says “I love you” in quite the same way that jewelry does.
Other Culturally Significant Gifts
Jewelry may be the traditional gift for a forty-seventh anniversary in the warmer parts of Europe, but in some of the other countries, the customary present is far more practical.
In Russia and Germany, where the weather tends to be a little harsher and the Winters are colder, the traditional gift for a couple celebrating their forty-seventh anniversary is cashmere. But just because it’s more pragmatic, it doesn’t mean that a cashmere gift can’t also be romantic.
Most couples like nothing more than snuggling up on the couch to watch a movie or whiling the hours away in each others company and an ideal way for them to stay warm and comfortable while they luxuriate in just being together is with a cashmere blanket that was knitted by Nepalese blanketeers high in the Himalayas.
Practicality doesn’t mean that something can’t, and won’t, find a special place in someone’s heart.
The Historical Aspect
Sometimes it’s nice to remind a couple where they came from, and as they look to the future in an attempt to see what it holds for them.
Long, successful relationships are built on a strong foundation of history, and a gift that helps a couple to celebrate that, as well as serving as a reminder of the time they originally committed to spending the rest of their lives together, is an ideal way to do just that.
This framed keepsake that captures the essence of 1974, is a perfect way for the couple celebrating their anniversary to remember who and who they were in the year that their lives changed, for the better, forever.
And even though it might not be the most expensive gift, as the old adage says, it really is the thought that counts.
There’s Nothing Wrong With Listening To Your Heart
With the best will, and intentions, in the world, a lot of the time, you can’t go wrong with the conventional gifts that tell someone how you feel or the grand gestures that emphatically state “I love you” in a far more eloquent way than words ever could.
That’s why flowers are still seen as being a perfect anniversary gift, as they are beauty personified and capture and encapsulate a feeling in a way that nothing else can.
At the end of the day though, anniversaries are just numbers, they’re building blocks in the journey of life, and the more of them you have under your collective belt, the more you understand and know about each other.
No amount of advice or speculation can replace or even hope to come close to guessing what your partner, or the couple that you’re thinking of buying a gift for, know about each other.
And that’s why a forty-seventh anniversary is so special because the only person who really knows what the perfect gift would be, is you.
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