The Jade Anniversary: 26 Years in France, 35 Elsewhere
In the French list of wedding anniversaries, twenty-six years of marriage is the jade anniversary. This page explains where that list comes from, what it is worth, why jade does not fall in the same year from one country to another, and which piece of jewelry holds up for an anniversary gift that will be worn every day.
In the French list of wedding anniversaries, the jade anniversary marks the twenty-sixth year: it follows the silver anniversary and comes before the mahogany anniversary. This list is a custom, not a rule: nothing I have read links it to any authority.
| Year of marriage | Anniversary |
|---|---|
| 24 years | satin |
| 25 years | silver |
| 26 years | jade |
| 27 years | mahogany |
| 28 years | nickel |
| 29 years | velvet |
| 30 years | pearl |
These seven ranks are the ones I checked, and I stop there rather than copy out a hundred-year list I have not opened.
My name is Jade, and I run a jade jewelry workshop: I choose the pieces, have them set, and weigh one example of each reference before it goes on sale. I am not a gemologist or a therapist: here, the mineralogy is stated as fact, and everything else is attributed.
Twenty-six years: what the French list says
The name of a wedding anniversary is not found in an official text, it is found in lists, and the only thing to do is check whether they agree. On September 10, 2026, I opened three unrelated French pages: a collaborative encyclopedia, an editorial list and a jeweler’s magazine. All three give the same rank, twenty-six years, and the neighboring ranks match too, from satin to pearl.
That agreement is enough to write it down. It is not enough to make it a rule, and that nuance is what the next section is about.
Where this list comes from, and what it is worth
The year-by-year list is younger than people think, and none of my sources says who fixed it. The encyclopedia article I read cites the folklorist Arnold Van Gennep: in his Manuel de folklore français contemporain, he recorded only two established commemorations, the silver anniversary at twenty-five years and the golden anniversary at fifty, first among the urban lower middle class. The complete lists appeared in almanacs and the popular press.
In other words: between two ranks that everyone celebrated, someone filled in the gaps. Behind the jade anniversary I found no decree, no academy, no standard: a custom, printed often enough to become stable. What that changes comes down to a verb. “Tradition dictates that jade celebrates twenty-six years” lends the list an authority it does not have. “In the French list, the twenty-sixth year is called the jade anniversary” says exactly what is true, and loses nothing by saying it.
The jade necklaces available now
Jade does not fall in the same year everywhere
If this list were a rule, it would not have two versions. In the English-language list, jade is not at the twenty-sixth rank but at the thirty-fifth, and even then it appears as the so-called modern gift, the traditional gift for the same year being coral. A nine-year gap for the same material, between two national customs that both claim tradition.
The consequence is practical. A French couple celebrates their jade anniversary at twenty-six years, a British or American couple at thirty-five. If you are planning an anniversary from an English-language page, or for a couple who live between two countries, check which list it refers to before you order.
Why jade at this rank, and what I do not know about it
I found no source explaining why jade landed in this particular spot. The gift pages I opened all give a reason, and it is the same one: longevity, protection, wisdom. Those words describe what is attributed to the stone, not what put it at the twenty-sixth rank. The only marker I can see is that this rank falls right after the silver anniversary, the big milestone of the series. That is an interpretation, and I file it below with the rest of my reasoning.
One detail stopped me while reading these pages: several call jade a “semi-precious” stone. Article 5 of French Decree No. 2002-65 of January 14, 2002 bans the French equivalent of that term across its whole scope, without exception, and it is the only outright vocabulary ban in the text. The right word is gemstone (is jade a precious stone, what a seller must disclose).
What holds up in jewelry worn every day
A wedding anniversary gift does not go in a drawer: it is worn, often every day and for years. On this point, mineralogy has something useful to say, and says it plainly. Hardness measures resistance to scratching, toughness resistance to breaking, and jade is a rare case: moderately hard, exceptionally tough. That toughness is what allows a bangle to be carved from a single block (why jade almost never breaks).
Hardness, however, differs depending on which mineral the word jade covers: nephrite sits at about 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale, jadeite at 6.5 to 7. Quartz rates 7 and makes up a good share of ordinary dust, so a dusty cloth dulls nephrite faster than jadeite (jade stone, jadeite or nephrite). The two care prohibitions are also worth mentioning before giving: never ultrasonic cleaners, never steam as long as treatment has not been determined, because resin withstands neither cavitation nor thermal shock (how to clean jade stone, storing a jade piece).
Which piece to give for a jade anniversary
I have a whole page on choosing the format and size, and I will not repeat it here: it reviews six formats and says, for each, what can be fixed afterwards (giving a jade piece as a gift). What changes here is its starting point: it assumes you do not know the person’s ring size or wrist size, because that is the usual situation with a gift. When the giver is the spouse, that is no longer true: they have the measurements, or can take them. The range of formats opens up widely, and this is the only situation in which I recommend a bangle without reservation.
Without reservation does not mean without care: it remains the only format in my catalog that cannot be adjusted. It is sized by inside diameter, it must pass over the folded hand at the thumb joint, and it cannot be recut. Measure first, choose second (measuring your wrist, the size guide, jade bracelets). The metal of the setting is decided at the same time, and it is what will age worst if chosen without thought (jade with gold, or sterling silver).
Bracelets whose density I publish
What I would avoid buying for the occasion
A gift with a date gets ordered quickly, and that is exactly when people buy badly. Four things would make me put a piece back, even three days before the date.
- Bright pink or true blue sold as jade, almost always dyed quartzite or colored jadeite (pink, blue and red jade, dyed jade).
- A compound name. “New jade,” “Malaysian jade” and “Korean jade” refer to serpentine or quartzite: honest stones under their real names, and that name is not jade (stones sold as jade).
- “Imperial jade” used as a selling point without the seller saying what the term refers to (what it refers to).
- An A, AA or AAA grade. It has no standing in any standard and borrows its alphabet from the real classification, the one for treatments (judging the quality of a jade).
What I publish instead, for every reference: the mass in air, the mass underwater, the resulting density, the date of the measurement, and the mineral that number points to. In the same block, I write that treatment has not been determined: my supplier does not know, my scale cannot say, and it would take infrared spectroscopy, which I do not have (weighing, what I publish on every product page, the treatment information sheet).
The date, and the one thing I do not promise
One thing bothers me about this subject, and I would rather write it down than skirt around it: an anniversary has a date, and I promise no delivery date. My pieces ship directly from my supplier, I control neither the warehouse nor the carrier, and a delivery time announced by guesswork would be the first thing a buyer could rightly hold against me. What I can do is say so before rather than after: if the date matters, order early, and what I know about shipping is on the shipping and returns page. If in any doubt, write to me rather than ordering blind.
What traditions attribute to jade
What follows changes register, and I flag it rather than blending it into the rest. Nothing in it is proven: it is what traditions have attributed to this stone.
Classical Chinese thought is said to associate jade with moral qualities rather than with a power: the material served to describe the accomplished person, not to act on them. That is philosophy, not crystal healing (the moral virtues of jade). Contemporary authors reportedly associate it with balance, longevity and luck: reported attributions, never established, and they are the ones gift pages repeat to justify the rank (what tradition attributes to the stone, the good-luck idea).
The irony of this subject lies in the name of my shop. The word jade comes from the Spanish piedra de la ijada, stone of the flank, coined around 1565 because the Spanish had seen conquered peoples wear it against kidney colic. The word I carry was born from a promise of healing, and that is exactly what I will never write on a gift card (the meaning of jade stone).
Questions I get asked
What is the twenty-sixth wedding anniversary called?
The jade anniversary, in the French list. It follows the silver anniversary and comes before the mahogany anniversary. Three pages opened on the same day give this rank, but the list remains a custom: none of my sources links it to an institution.
Is the jade anniversary at twenty-six years everywhere?
No, and that is the trap in this subject. In the English-language list, jade is the so-called modern gift for the thirty-fifth anniversary, the traditional one being coral. A nine-year gap: check which list the page you are reading refers to.
Why jade for this particular anniversary?
I found no source that explains it. The reasons given, longevity and protection, describe what is attributed to the stone, not how the list was built. It was filled in year by year between two older ranks, silver and gold.
Which jade piece should I give for twenty-six years?
The one that will be worn. A pendant on a cord if you are completely unsure, a beaded strand if you know the wrist size, a bangle if you have measured the folded hand. The details format by format are on giving a jade piece as a gift.
Can a jade bangle that is too small be recut?
No. A bangle is carved from a single block: no clasp, no hinge, nothing opens and nothing enlarges. It is the only format in my catalog that cannot be fixed after the gift, hence measuring before buying.
How can I tell whether the jade I give is the real thing?
By looking at what the seller publishes. A measured, dated density, with the mineral it points to, can be checked; a label reading “natural jade AAA” cannot. At around 2.6 or 2.65, the stone is serpentine or quartzite, not jade.
Where I checked
What comes from a named source. The twenty-six-year rank and its neighbors, from satin to pearl, come from three unrelated French pages opened on September 10, 2026: a collaborative encyclopedia article, an editorial list and a jeweler’s magazine page. The reference to Arnold Van Gennep and his Manuel de folklore français contemporain, like the mention of almanacs, is cited by the first of the three: it is a secondhand citation, and I have not opened the Manuel. The thirty-fifth rank of jade in the English-language list, and the coral that goes with it, come from English-language commercial pages read the same day. The hardness ranges are those of the mineralogical literature: I cite them, I did not measure them, and I do not attribute them to any organization because I did not take them from any single one.
What is a dated market observation. On September 10, 2026, none of the gift pages I opened stated that the anniversary list has no authority behind it, several called jade a “semi-precious” stone, and I did not see jadeite and nephrite distinguished on any of them. On September 8, 2026, my supplier confirmed that they cannot say whether their goods are treated.
What is my own reasoning. Reading this rank as a quiet slot placed right after the silver anniversary is an interpretation, not a fact. Recommending a bangle for this particular anniversary because the person’s measurements are finally known is a decision, not a rule, and refusing to announce a delivery time is another, which costs me sales with tight deadlines. If you find an error here, write to me: I will correct it and note the change.
In one sentence
The jade anniversary is a well-established custom that places jade at the twenty-sixth year of marriage in France, and at the thirty-fifth rank in the English-language list. What decides the quality of the gift is not the rank but the stone: a jade whose density is published can be checked, a “jade” that only has a quality grade cannot. The method is on the weighing page, and the pieces are in the shop.
Jade pendants, one example weighed per reference
