The tradition of giving designated gifts for specific wedding anniversaries is said to have originated in medieval Germany, though some scholars make a case for it extending as far back ancient Rome. But all evidence points to it being codified in the Victorian era. The 1859 edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac reads, “[O]ne month from marriage makes a sugar wedding; one year makes a paper wedding.” It continues to tick off the milestones: at five years, it’s wood, then a decade is tin, silver for 25, gold is 50, and the hardest substance of all, diamond, marks the remarkable longevity of 75 years. A few decades later, in the 1880s, Webster’s Complete Dictionary of the English Language asserted the same designations, except for diamond, which it assigned to the perhaps more reasonable (if only slightly) 60th anniversary.

As time has gone on (and marketing opportunities have become the way of the world), each anniversary from the first to the 10th gets its own particular prize, and you can turn to any bridal magazine for a resource. According to The Knot, the third anniversary is leather, the fourth is fruits and/or flowers, and the ninth is willow and/or pottery. After a decade, you only get to mark a milestone every five years — a slightly counterintuitive twist, if I may say. After all, is a 38th anniversary really less important that a 35th? That’s the coral anniversary, for anyone who is keeping tabs.

Round anniversaries and birthdays typically trigger widespread reflection, though different cultures do have symbolic numbers that might inspire contemplation or special celebration. In Chinese, eight is an auspicious number. Although bar and bat mitzvahs are celebrated at 13 and 12 to commemorate adulthood, 18 is a more significant number in Judaism, as it represents the sum total of the numerals associated with each letter of the Hebrew alphabet that spells the word for ‘life’.

I bring this all up because the issue in your hands is the 200th issue of Whisky Magazine. In the publishing world, a number as huge and round as 200 is a gargantuan achievement. These days, sad though it is to say, it’s more thrilling as a sign of survival, what with the industry choking and gagging as it is, than a feat of creativity, commitment, and tenacity. Though some of you are no doubt reading these words online, I ask you to consider what it takes, in terms of sheer hours and people power, to create a single issue. Not only is there the reporting and writing and editing and layout, there’s the photography and captioning and advert sales and tastings and listings. And that’s to say nothing of the administrative, financial, and logistical work that happens behind the scenes. And that happens at a constant clip — one issue after the last, without pause. (For a real mind-bender, consider the work collectively put into a daily newspaper/news website hour upon hour, day after day.)

As a reminder of this unending cycle, I exhumed another anniversary issue: Whisky Magazine issue 76, published in November 2008 on the occasion of our 10th anniversary. Its 82 pages contain adverts for Tullamore DEW, Bunnahabhain, Benriach, Tyrconnell, and Glengoyne, among other familiar names, making the issue feel timeless. There’s an article commemorating Welsh distillery Penderyn bottling its whisky for five years and another with a headline that asks, “Is grain whisky on the verge of an exciting new era?”. With the ever-growing success of distilling throughout Wales today and the answer to the headline, from today’s retrospective viewpoint, being “no”, the features solidify the issue’s status as a historic artefact. If that’s not enough to call it a relic, consider that the late Michael Jackson penned a column, and Port Ellen 29 Years Old is just another single malt reviewed in the issue’s seven pages of tastings. (“A solid performer but not in the same league as the 1982 25 Year Old,” wrote the late Dominic Roskrow.)

If there’s any lesson to take away from this trot into the archives, it’s simple: no need to wait for a milestone anniversary to look back and appreciate how far the industry has come. Here’s to all the knowledge and memories issue 201 will bring.