Over the years, we’ve explored many traditions surrounding the modern wedding. But one that has eluded our webpages is that of, arguably, one of the more important traditions — the wedding ring.
Typically, an engagement ring is the flashier of the ring set, but a wedding ring can also add a little razzle dazzle, by including similar stones or metal. For most of history, however, the two were one in the same.
Like makeup, toothpaste and one of the ancient world’s first calendars, the inception of the wedding ring can be attributed to the Egyptians.
According to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), thousands of years ago Egyptian pharaohs gave rings to represent eternity. The shape of the ring also matched the shape of the sun and the moon, which at the time the Egyptians worshipped.
Following Alexander the Great’s conquering of Egypt, the Greeks adopted the ring-giving tradition to represent devotion to their loved ones. And then following the Romans conquering of Greece, all three superpowers had adopted the wedding ring in their marriage ceremonies.
We can also attribute the ring finger being the fourth finger on the left hand to the Egyptians. They believed the finger contained a “vena amoris” or a “vein of love” that led directly to the heart. Though this is not anatomically accurate, the Romans also believed this and thus the tradition of placing the wedding ring on this finger stuck.
In the 12th century, the Catholic church added marriage as a holy sacrament and the wedding ring became a part of the ceremony, with the idea that a man should not place a ring on a woman’s finger unless he meant to be married. Before this moment, a ring didn’t always signify marriage, more just a devotion of love that was used in wedding ceremonies. It is believed that the idea of two different wedding rings emerged during this time, one being given as a personal memento before the actual ceremony and then the church-sanctioned ring for the holy sacrament.
It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that the wedding and engagement ring evolved to contain gemstones. The GIA stated that medieval Europeans used gemstones in their wedding rings to represent various sentiments, such as rubies to symbolize passion, sapphire to symbolize the heavens and diamonds for steadfast strength.
Diamond wedding rings were first noted in the late 1300s and early 1400s when an English widow left one in her will. Apparently, there was a poem written in 1475 about the wedding of two Italian socialites that read “two wills, two hearts, two passions are bonded in one marriage by a diamond.”
According to the GIA, the first famous diamond engagement ring was giving in 1477 by Archduke Maximillian of Austria to Mary of Burgundy. In keeping with our “Let Them Eat Cake” theory that most of what we think of as traditional European wedding trends point to the Victorian era, the diamond ring became increasingly popular thanks to Queen Victoria’s love of diamond jewelry.
WeddingWire.com notes that in 1886 Tiffany & Co. founder Charles Louis Tiffany created the now famous Tiffany Setting that included one diamond in a four-prong setting. This set the tone for the modern idea of an engagement ring, which is still in play today .
World War II is noted for pushing the popularity of the engagement ring even further, as soldiers would propose to their sweethearts before they were sent off to battle in a promise that they would return and marry once the war concluded. It was also during this time that diamond giant De Beers successfully promoted the diamond engagement ring a staple. In 1947, De Beers pushed the advertising slogan “a diamond is forever.” Additionally, during the WWII era men’s wedding rings became more popular. Prior to that time period, this wasn’t common. Men would wear their wedding ring during deployment as a reminder of their wives and lives back at home. It eventually caught on and now, married men are far more likely than not to begin wearing wedding rings after the nuptials.
Today, both wedding and engagement rings contain myriad stones, settings and metal options that stray from any traditional ideas and symbolism. Like the Egyptian concept of rings having no beginning or end, and unlike any other wedding traditions we’ve covered, there’s no sign of this thousand year old practice falling out of fashion.
