A wedding ring or alternatively a wedding band is a worn to indicate that the wearer is married. In western culture they are typically made of gold or another precious metals such as palladium or platinum. The tradition of wearing wedding rings dates back thousands of years.
The oldest evidence associating marriage and rings comes from Egypt. Pictures from 6,000 years ago depict the exchange of braided rings of reeds or hemp between couples. Ancient Egyptians considered the circle a symbol of eternity and to them the ring signified the love of the married couple. They also believed that the ring finger of the left hand had the shortest path to the heart, which is why they chose it for their rings.
The use of precious metal stems from Greece and the concept of a marital dowry. As with many Greek cultural ideas, it found its way into Roman custom and from there into western tradition. A common early theme for European rings was two hands clasped together. Byzantine rings often featured the image of Christ uniting the couple. Elsewhere in the Middle East, puzzle rings. They were made from several components in order to make it hard for a wife to remove them without notice.
Evolution of Wedding Rings
The tradition went through several iterations. During the high middle ages, the couple exchanged gimmel rings at their engagement. These rings were made of two interlocking bands. Each of the betrothed wore the rings separately until their wedding day. After that, the wife wore both rings. Another popular style was the poesy ring. These silver rings were inscribed with a poem.
For most of western culture the wedding ring was primarily an adornment for the wife. That changed in the 20th century when both men and women wore rings as a sign of their love and fidelity. In the new world (North & South America) the ring is worn primarily on the left hand. In Europe, there’s a greater degree of variation, which brings us to our featured map courtesy of Europeisnotdead.com.
As a brief aside, I recently enjoyed celebrating a wedding anniversary. While I do wear my wedding band on my left hand, I don’t wear it on my ring finger. About five years ago, I injured my ring finger (doing a cartwheel of all things). The knuckle swelled. After several month I figured it wasn’t going to go down, so I had my ring enlarged. Of course it did eventually return to normal. Unfortunately, my ring is too big for it, so now I wear it on my left middle finger.
As always thanks for reading.
Armen
Note to Pay the Bills: While there are no weddings, a different type of ring plays an important role in the Misaligned Series. The series seeks to answer the question – what happens at the intersection of String Theory and Arthurian? Learn more by reading a summary of the series here and find links to purchase books here.
Varouj – I hear what you’re saying. Other than a brief stint in the 70s, I’ve never worn jewelry. Other than my wedding band, I wear a watch. It’s a $25 digital Timex that I like because I can wear it when I swim. It hardly qualifies as jewelry – if anything it’s an anti-fashion statement announcing how out of touch I really am. Thanks for commenting.
Armen: Interesting information which I can use in a conversation about why I don’t wear a wedding ring. I used to wear one on my left ring finger. During an advanced defensive driving training where I had to manoeuvre the car at a high speed in reverse, my ring got caught in the steering wheel. It was very painful. I did not have a broken bone but the finger swelled. It normalized after several months. I don’t like wearing any type of jewellery (or perfume and aftershave) and I was not thrilled wearing even a wedding ring. My very considerate wife (we’ve been married for 40+ years) did not make an issue that I never returned to wearing the ring.