> What is the significance of an anniversary?
>
> So a year has passed! So what!
>
> The event took place. Whether it was one week ago or one month ago or one year ago or one hundred years ago....why is the anniversary important?

After reading a bit of commentary in the chat room, I'm thinking that your main concern is that the time period of a year is something that is arbitrary. Something that happened on August 23, 1997, didn't happen again on August 23, 2002. However, we're all using a similar calendar system based off of a year, one that has been pretty well established for thousands of these "years". When an event happens on a certain date and a year passes, we become nostaglic about the date. "Hey, it's August 23rd again," a human might say. "Remember a year ago, in our common calendar system, when something important happened on the same day that was defined by the same month name and numerical value?" "Why, yes I do," another human might respond. "Why, it was just a year ago on a day that occured in the same division of the year defined by the 'month' word and 'day of the month' number. How about that!" The date reminds us of the event that happened back a year, two years, or more ago. It is more prominent in our minds because of the name given to the day -- August 23rd. Sure, we might recall the events that happened one August 23rd on, say, a day named July 13th, but the people involved will notice the actual day's date all around them and remember when something important happened.

In short, we have a common method to measure time. When a date that something happened on comes around a year later, we notice the similarity in the dates. We remark on the similarity.

This is also how traditions begin.

-Faux "Was going to write something about how girls started the whole anniversary thing just to get presents, but won't" Pas