What Anniversaries Do You Celebrate in Second Life?

An anniversary is where you look back at having either fulfilled Cinderella or Lord of the Flies.

Fernando A. Torres

A recent spate of anniversaries in Second Life (SL) got me thinking. 

(Significant Other wonders aloud what will get me thinking about our anniversary.)

We’ve had the fourteenth anniversary celebration for SL, 1920s Berlin’s annual observance of its founding, and, of course, the sixth anniversary of my blogging inworld.  

There are plenty of other less formal anniversaries in SL too.  There are rez dates, partner/marriage anniversaries, and numerous others that I’ve probably overlooked in my

meanderings.  (I’d like to point out here that I’ve never missed any anniversaries with Significant Other.  I may have come close but never missed.) 

This has gotten me thinking about what do all these anniversaries mean to us?

In Real Life (RL), celebrating an anniversary is all about remembering an event or recognizing an ongoing relationship.  We come together with friends and family and have a good time.  These are happy occasions for the most.  (While in RL, sad occasions are often remembered by anniversary observances, I haven’t come across any recurring memorial observances for either events or people.)

Is what we do in SL any different from RL?

What do we do inworld?

We come together, we remember, we celebrate, and we do it over and over again, year after year?

Still with me?  (Significant Other’s face has its “What’s the point of all this?” look on it.)

Why do we do this?

In answering this, I’m not going to distinguish between SL and RL. 

Something else, have you ever stopped and considered that only sentient creatures (that’s us humans) observe anniversaries?  For example, when was the last time your pet dog got upset with you because you missed its birthday?  Do you even know its birthday? 

When we have anniversaries, we’re remembering happy times for the most part. 

We’re remembering the people who were with us then even if they may be gone now. 

We’re reaching out to our community for emotional support.

There’s that word “community” again!

We’re just not disconnected individuals inworld.  We’re not pieces on a board in a game somewhere. 

We’re part of a community, albeit virtual, but we belong!

And, that’s why we observe anniversaries inworld, to remember that we belong somewhere! 

Please drop me a line and let me know what anniversaries you observe in SL especially if it’s not one I’ve mentioned!

If I get enough replies then I’ll do a follow up story, or, better yet, invite me over and let me meet you and your community! 

As always, I’m grateful to all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives. 

My Twitter handle is @webspelunker.  Please feel free to follow me and I’d be happy to follow you.

I can be found on Google+ as webspelunker Ghostraven.

My flickr Photostream is located here.

On Skype I’m webspelunker Ghostraven.

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

            If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life  please click here.

            Open roads and kind fires!