Anniversaries – the date on which an event took place in a previous year.

History is full of anniversaries spanning the globe from deaths. coronations, battles, ends of wars, religious celebrations, and weddings. History lovers want to know, so I asked Paper Lantern Writers what anniversaries were celebrated in their historical fiction, and they answered.

Ana Brazil:

My FANNY NEWCOMB & THE IRISH CHANNEL RIPPER is set in April 1889 in New Orleans, and has no anniversaries. But this question made me think: what would Fanny and her crew celebrate annually? Although New Orleans is “Mardi Gras Central”, I immediately thought of All Saints’ Day, November 1st. On this day, Catholic New Orleanians made their annual pilgrimage to the city’s many cemeteries, where they honored their dead by whitewashing and tidying-up their family crypts and leaving fresh flowers and personal mementos.

Although my set-in-April 1919 San Francisco mystery THE RED-HOT BLUES CHANTEUSE also has no anniversaries, I’m quite sure that seven months later, on November 11, 1919, everyone in my story takes a moment to honor the anniversary of the WWI armistice.

Both of these anniversaries show our love of family, friends, and country, and it’s not surprising that they are both going strong today!

Vanitha Sankaran:

Where Ritual Meets Grief

In Hindu culture, honoring the anniversary of a loved one’s death is a sacred and yearly tradition. Known as śrāddha, the ritual is meant to ensure peace for the departed soul and continued blessings for the living. Families perform specific rites, such as offering food (often rice balls called pindas) to the departed souls, conducting a fire ceremony, and feeding Brahmins or those in need. Prayers are recited, usually by the eldest son or a close relative, invoking both memory and spiritual release.

In my current work-in-progress, my protagonist returns home for the first anniversary of her mother’s passing. Through this ritual, she confronts her own grief, filial expectations, and the parts of mourning she can’t speak aloud. In the novel, it becomes a turning point. Not closure, exactly, but the start of learning how to carry her mother forward, rather than just letting her go.

Anne M. Beggs:

This question prompted me to do a bit of research on anniversaries, particularly the history of wedding anniversaries. I found the tradition dates to ancient Rome, when a husband would present his wife with a silver crown for their twenty-fifth anniversary, and you guessed it, a golden crown for their fiftieth. Wedding anniversaries were also celebrated in the Middle Ages, continuing to the modern day.
I found this public domain painting so touching: Fifty Years Since Our Wedding Day. (By Saint George Hare – artnet.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12204813). Not only is it a precious capture of an elder couple, but that church certainly tickles my medieval fetish.

My husband and I are celebrating our Golden Anniversary, on Saturday, September 20, 2025. A time-honored tradition. With the weddings in my stories, I really need to add a wedding anniversary. Such a celebration could be fraught with as much danger, frustration, and political intrigue as the weddings, right? Page-turning stuff…hopefully our own quiet celebration will not be such a trauma. Nor am I expecting a golden crown for my equestrian helmet, but we are happy and grateful to be historic, fiction or not.

How about you? What anniversaries intrigue you? Have you read about any anniversaries? Written any? History enthusiasts want to know.