Anniversaries

Today is Auckland Anniversary Day, its 175th birthday and a public holiday. But this weekend had another anniversary, one I didn’t have a chance to acknowledge on this blog. The first will return again next year, but the other one?

On Saturday, January 24, 2009, Nigel and I had our Civil Union ceremony and a party afterward. This year, the anniversary was also on a Saturday—six year to the very day. We weren’t in Auckland, however.

My brother-in-law, his partner and their kids moved to another house, and we went down to help, though nearly everything was done by the time we got there. Which was nice, to be honest. It was also incredibly hot, much as it was the Saturday six years earlier.

I wondered if the anniversary of our civil union might fade, now that we’re married. In 2009, the only way for us to have our relationship officially recognised was to have a civil union, so having one made practical sense. I think that the civil union anniversary will always matter because of that fact, but I think that in future it may not be a big focus—but, who knows? This year a niece is getting married on the same date we did—October 31—so we won’t be the only ones to whom that date is special.

But that’s really the larger point, isn’t it? Personal anniversaries are important to people precisely because they’re personal. Others may join in celebrating, or not, but that doesn’t change anything for the couple. So, our civil union anniversary will be important to us for what it meant, and so will our marriage anniversary, and partly because it completed what began that horribly hot January Saturday back in 2009.

We may not have celebrated our anniversary on Saturday this year, but that doesn’t mean it was forgotten. I doubt it ever will be, but, just in case, I’m including a list of all my previous posts about this anniversary.

Auckland Anniversary will definitely be back next year, though.

Posts from previous years

2009: Perfect Day – where it began
2010: One and Fifteen
2011: Second Anniversary, squared
2012: Three years ago today
2013: Fourth Anniversary
2014: An anniversary