What's an Anniversary Anyway?

Macy's proclaimed its "80th Anniversary of the Thanksgiving Day parade" this week. But out of the same mouth it announced it was the "80th parade." Think about it. It can't be both the 80th anniversary of the parade and the 80th running of it. An anniversary marks a year after an event, but it gets tricky here, so stay with me. If it's a wedding anniversary, you don't count the actual wedding (that's ground zero). However, if you are holding an event such as a parade, you can count the first as "one," and your second parade is the first anniversary of the first parade. It's tough, but that's the way it is.

Comments

[karen]

So true! Plus, it was bothering me when the announcer would say the 80th "annual" parade ... because during WWII, the parade didn't take place for a few years, so it wasn't the 80th "annual" parade, either. But I still enjoyed it. :o)

I did notice once on Thursday that Matt Lauer started to say "annual" and then corrected himself. :o)