Wedding History: The Ring

The wedding ring has a long and detailed history, but I’ll just give you a quick review with some fun facts thrown in. 

Photo Credit: Sirtrentalot (flicker account)

  

Wedding rings were first used by ancient Egyptians, who made them by braiding rushes and reeds.  The ring is a circle, a symbol of eternity for the Egyptians because it has no beginning and no end.  When we marry we hope that our love will be eternal and thus symbolize that love with a ring.  The Egyptians wore their rings, like us, on the third finger of the left hand because they believed that the vein in that finger led directly to the heart.

The Egyptians’ rings would wear and tear and only last about a year before they fell apart.  In early Rome, iron was the material of choice for a wedding ring.  Iron symbolized the strength of the love the man felt for his bride to be.  After coinage gold became the metal of choice and in medieval Europe gemstones were added.

Folklore:

In Irish folklore it is bad luck for a wedding ring to be made out of any material besides gold.  Other superstitions deal with the size of the ring.  If the ring is too loose then them marriage would break up due to careless acts or forgetfulness.  If the ring is too tight it would point jealousy or the stifling of one person by the other and the marriage would collapse.

Cool Facts:

In some parts of continental Europe people wear wedding rings on the right hand.  And during the Elizabethan period, fashionable ladies wore wedding rings on their thumbs.  The practice of a man wearing a wedding band began mostly during the Second World War - thought to be a consequence of men being separated from their spouse.