Should You Celebrate Your Wedding Anniversary Following a Bereavement in the Family?

A wedding anniversary brings a couple together as they share in the joy of another year of married life together. But what if there has been a recent bereavement in the family? Should a couple cancel their wedding anniversary celebrations? To answer this question, many different circumstances will need to be taken into account.

Date of the Funeral

If the deceased is scheduled to be buried or cremated on or close to the date of the wedding anniversary, a couple will most likely want to go, especially if the deceased is a parent, sibling or other close relative. It will be the last time a couple will have to pay your respects to the deceased and attending the funeral can also help a couple to cope with the grief of losing a loved one.

Support Other Grieving Relatives

A death can either bind a family closer together or it can destroy the unity of a family. Some couples choose to cancel their wedding anniversary celebrations so that they can stay home and support surviving spouses, minor children and others who have been deeply affected by the death of their relative. It is a very personal decision to make.

What Would the Deceased Have Wanted?

Many couples decide to go ahead with their wedding anniversary plans, not because they have selfishly disregarded the feelings of other grieving relatives, but because they know that the deceased would not have wanted their wedding anniversary to be ruined. It is a sad reality that life must still go on and this is hard to accept in the early days following death. But this can be expressed in the fact that the wedding anniversary is still an important and worthy celebration that must go on, despite the recent bereavement.

Respite from the Grief

Still other couples choose to still celebrate their wedding anniversary so that they can have a brief respite from their grief. That does not mean to say that they are insensitive to the death of their relative. It simply means that the change of scenery and focus will help a couple deal more successfully with the overwhelming nature of the grief when they return.