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One of the most heart-felt and touching occasions that a couple can celebrate is a wedding anniversary. It allows a family to gather to celebrate its beginnings as well as allowing a couple to reconnect and to remember the reasons that they fell in love in the first place. While these celebrations have become more popular in the 20th century, many people would be surprised to learn that anniversaries were recognized in medieval times.

In the past, many married couples who lived in a particular region had the same wedding anniversary. This phenomenon was due to the fact that many small villages shared the same priest who did not have the time to perform the number of marriages that the people required. The Church soon decided that there would be only two times a year when marriage ceremonies would be held and that anyone wishing to be joined as husband and wife had to be present at one of these services. This practice led to numerous couples celebrating their milestone anniversaries on the same day by celebrating together.

These married couples did not celebrate their anniversaries very often however. In many countries, only the 25th and the 50th wedding anniversaries were celebrated. There are several reasons for these particular years to be considered special occasions. The 25th anniversary was recognized as an opportunity to rejoice in the couple’s freedom from childrearing. As most couples got married in their early to middle teens, by the age of thirty-five (when most couples would be celebrating their 25th anniversary) most of their children were considered to be adults. The husband would place a silver wreath on his wife’s head as a symbol of their unity and of the new stage of their life that they were about to begin.

The 50th anniversary was particularly festive due to the fact that in medieval times the normal life span was approximately forty years of age for men due to disease and battle. Many women passed away at a much earlier age due to childbirth fatalities as well as falling ill due to annual pregnancies spanning over many years. The idea that a husband and wife had both survived until their 50th anniversary was remarkable. This anniversary was marked by the husband placing golden wreath on his wife’s head, symbolizing how valuable such a long-lasting union was.

In the 1930s society began to celebrate the 1st, 10th, 20th, 25th, 50th, and the 70th anniversaries. It was around this time that certain items were designated as proper gifts according to which anniversary was being celebrated.

In today’s society, it is normal for married couples to celebrate their wedding anniversary every year. In an age where fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce, many couples never reach their 10th anniversary while others are lucky to reach their 5th. So it may be safer to celebrate each year rather than to wait for a milestone anniversary that most people will never reach. This explains the reason that the festivities to celebrate the 25th and 50th anniversaries have turned into huge affairs as most people are astounded that these couples have remained together that long. In modern times, reaching these milestone anniversaries is an accomplishment in itself.

One heartwarming phenomenon in today’s world is the growing number of couples who are celebrating their 75th and 80th anniversaries. When they were young, these couples lived in the age when teenage marriages were considered normal. Due to vast improvements in medical care, these husbands and wives have remained side by side well into their 90s with some even reaching over the age of 100.

The explanation as to why we celebrate wedding anniversaries may lay in the image of a 80th anniversary celebration where a 101-year-old husband is gently holding his 99-year-old wife’s hand with a twinkle in his eye surrounded by children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great-great-grandchildren. This picture says it all. An anniversary celebration is a celebration of love and life itself.

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February 14th has long been celebrated as Saint Valentine’s Day when lovers exchange cards and gifts as tokens of their love for each other. The origins of this holiday are disputed by many experts.

Some experts feel that the origins of Valentine’s Day may be traced to the ancient Romans and their February celebration of Lupercalia, although this celebration had nothing to do with romance. This festival was held on February 15th and was closely associated with fertility. Roman men would run naked through the streets, striking out into the crowd with shaggy thongs. As it was believed that to be struck could help a woman become pregnant or aid a pregnant woman in childbirth, these females would purposely step into the path of these blows. The word Lupericalia comes from lupus (wolf) and is closely connected with the she-wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. This festival was only local to Rome and was abolished by Pope Gelasius I in the 490s.

There are several Christian martyrs who bear the name Valentine and whose saint day is February 14th. There was Valentine of Rome who suffered martyrdom in AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. His relics are located at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome and at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland. Due to the location of the latter relic, this Valentine may have been well known on the British Isles. Another Valentine was Valentine of Terni, who was martyred in AD 197 and is buried in a different section of Via Flaminia. Since his relics are present at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni, he was probably not as well known in northern Europe. Neither of these Valentines had anything to do with love or romance. Other than their names and the date of their saint day, these saints have no connection to Valentine’s Day.

The idea that this celebration is associated with lovers seems to have been introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1382 in his work Parlement of Foules. This poem was written to honor King Richard II upon his marriage to Anne of Bohemia. As Chaucer refers to birds mating, it seems likely that he was not writing about February 14th as English winters were cold and the birds would probably not have been present. Another St. Valentine had his saint day on May 2nd, which would be a more reasonable time for birds to be mating.

The conception of Valentine’s Day as a day for lovers began in the United States in the 1840s by Esther Howland whose father owned a large stationery store. She began to mass produce valentines that lovers could send to each other based on an English valentine that she had received. The purchase of these cards has led to Valentine’s Day being the second largest holiday for card manufacturers, second only to Christmas.

Since the 1950s, lovers have been giving gifts as well as cards. These gifts include roses and candy. The diamond industry began to promote jewelry as the perfect Valentine’s gift in the 1980s. Today, flowers and candy are still given, as well as jewelry and various gift baskets which can be filled with chocolate or wine and cheese.

While many people may think that Valentine’s Day is an ancient celebration, the association that the holiday has with lovers turns out to have been developed as a commercial venture. Perhaps we should stick with the story about the ancient tradition. Sometimes fiction is much more romantic than the truth.

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It seems that women (of course I am generalizing) have getting married in a fairy tale wedding as a goal in life.

Men on the other hand seem to kind of wind up getting married because thats the next thing to do. Or they can’t hold off their long term girlfriend/finance’ any longer and just concede that its time .

Most men spend very little time thinking about getting married right up until the time that they suddenly find themselves (even if it was years in the making it still seemed sudden) yup getting married.

Now back to women it seems that women become focused on finding their future husband and getting a big diamond engagement ring going on tour showing everybody their new sparkler and then really starting the planning of their aforementioned fairy tale wedding complete with their ideal gown/cake/bridesmaids/caterer/music/flowers/center pieces etc…

I am of course forgetting the bridal shower and registering for gifts photographers guests lists and honeymoon. The Bride to be has all these things to focus on while of course preparing for the wedding extravaganza and dreaming of what her long imagined and now much planned day will turnout.

(perfect she imagines)

The poor groom to be either “gets” to help in some of these wedding tasks or just gets the constant updates and deals with the bride to be’s ups and downs as the process unfolds. If he’s fortunate he may have the diversion of a bachelor party but he must act like he isn’t excited about attending the party (maybe even say he would rather be with her) Nonetheless the groom does get to chat with all his old friends and some relatives that he likes(and some he might barely know or not like at all) as the wedding approaches.

He most likely runs across some fellows who have survived the whole wedding thing and are actually married men. Here it comes you guessed it These married gents when told that you are getting married nervously laugh and reply in a joking tone Don’t Do It Don’t Do It!

They then laugh it off as a little joke shake hands congratulate you and seem genuinely interested in the particulars and say they can’t wait. Good Luck. This scenario brings up a bunch of questions and some issues which we will try to address.

1 Are those guys really joking when the say don’t do it?

2 Are woman set up for a huge let down when they have reached their dreamed of goal of getting the ring the Gown the Wedding and the Husband?

3 If the answer to #1 and 2 are yes what does that mean about the subsequent marriage?

Oh yeah thats right the purpose of going through a wedding be it simple or elaborate is to unite 2 people in marriage. The problem often is what are they supposed to do then?

How do you make a marriage work?

How do you avoid joining the huge and growing ranks of the divorced? I don’t believe that women spent much of their wedding dream actually thinking about what married life will be like and boom now they find themselves married.

Men (me being one of them) certainly don’t think through much if any details of what it takes to make a marriage work prior to finding themselves married. They just don’t. Based on the above the question becomes how can couples make it work, keep it together, become happy married couples that love each other and love to be with each other as true loving partners?

How do they do it? Especially after the original excitement and sexual heat cools a bit? Well one way to give your relationship its best opportunity to not only survive but thrive is to invest in your relationship invest in each other by joining the members of OURDATENIGHT.COM and enhanceing your chances of actually creating a great marriage.

As a half drunk best man once shared with the wedding party during his eloquent toast ” May all your ups and downs be between the sheets”

Well Said

Husband of Gina Gray

http://ourdatenight.com/dont-do-it-dont-do-it-and-other-things-guys-say-when-you-are-getting-married/

Ladies, Are you looking for romance or sex?

Which is more important? Which do you desire more?

Or is it both?

What’s holding you back from getting what you want? Are you claiming your too tired to put any effort into getting what you want?

Are you having trouble communicating what you want? Is your partner just plan hopeless? Does he know how to give you what you want?

Do you desire to have him romance you regularly? When is the last time you felt special, needed, wanted and desired by your partner?

It’s time to get what you want and how you want it? The best part is you don’t even have to ask for it. He will just do it!

Do you remember when he would take you out, bring you flowers, cards, gifts etc! He would open the door, help you with your coat, not burp or fart in front of you! Oh the good ole days! Ladies I can bring those days back. I can get him to do all those things and more and he will love it too.

I can get him to give you the foreplay that you need want and desire. I can get him to surprise, shock and treat you like the goddess that you are!

Out goes your worn out tired old husband/partner, in comes the new and improved most romantic man on the planet! Ha you laugh! No I have proof! It can and will happen, “I’ve done it to the most unresponsive, laziest couch potato men in the world.”

Of course ladies he will need some attention to it’s only fair. I believe if the men get what they want and you get what you want it’s a WIN-WIN.

Men Want Sex Woman Need Romance.

Let Me Give You The Secret. So You Both Get What You Want!

You need to nurture your relationship on a regular basis. It’s essential for the relationship to not only survive but thrive. If you care about your partner and your relationship you must take the necessary actions to make that happen.

Have you ever considered your partner looking elsewhere to get their intimate desires met?

Unfortunately, many many people do just that. They can’t communicate what the NEED and DESIRE from their partner. Do you want to take that chance?

How did that feel when you thought of that?

Could you imagine it?

What would be an easier experience, going through the heartache of that or giving an hour or so per week to fulfilling each others needs? Keep the one you have. It’s easier than you think. Also way more fun than you can imagine. Think for a moment can you say your partner is 100% satisfied with the love, sex and romance you provide?

Are you?

Please if you know of others that feel like this pass it along. Go to my comment area or blog and rave about it.

Thank you

Gina Grey-Romance Director

www.ourdatenight4woman.com

Husband of Gina http://ourdatenight.com/romance-or-sex/ http://ourdatenight.com

My wife and I were laying in bed a little while back, we had the tv on and I was changing channels. I stopped on a Cable Pay channel which happened to have on the AVN Awards.

Anybody know what they are? Well for those that don’t know congratulations pat yourself on the back. Why you say? Well the AVN awards are the Adult Film Industry awards.

Thats right they give out awards for best performances in Porn movies. Not only to they give out awards they have an awards show which is actually broadcast on a cable channel.

Now if you haven’t had the misfortune to tune in to this porntacular you haven’t really missed much. Oh sure their are plenty of porns best and brightest in various stages of formal undress strutting around along with the male performers second tier celebs, rockers, comics and some other shady looking persons in the audience.

Now when I say they give out porn awards I mean they give out like hundreds of them, including best oral, best anal and best “actress” to name but a few.

These are all very prestigious awards at this event as you can imagine. Now the funny part of all this is when the actress steps to the microphone to accept their hard earned award they actually attempt to thank the people who made this honor possible.

Ok Ok I know you are totally confused as to what the Porn awards has to do with relationships let alone with the title of this article.

Well the MC of this particular AVN Awards Show which we happened across was this smarmy little smart aleck of a comedian named Craig Fitzsimmons.

You can imagine that this awards show certainly is a tough Gig for a stand-up but Fitzsimmons is a pro and got some laughs from this odd crowd. In particular he made a joke about being able to give himself a better handjob than any of the professionals in the audience or his wife could.

I laughed and my wife the inquiring type asked if that was true?

Did I too think that I could give myself a better handy than she could?

So you really think you can do it better than me? She asks. Now as any married man knows this kind of question and its response could turn things in a couple different ways.

Luckily for me ours ended up bringing me substantial enjoyment as my wife tried to prove that comedian wrong.(thanks Craig Fitzsimmons)

So if you would like your relationship to take a turn for the better let the good people at OURDATENIGHT.COM lend a helping hand and you might end up with your loved one taking care of you not only better than you could yourself but perhaps even better than the award winners who wished to thank “all the cast and crew the director her costars and everybody else who helped me win this award”.

Another standing ovation

Take care of you and yours

http://ourdatenight.com/so-you-really-think-you-can-do-it-better-than-me/