subject: Wedding Rings: Unfolding Their History [print this page] Wedding Rings: Unfolding Their History Wedding Rings: Unfolding Their History
A wedding ring is an essential consideration of any wedlock, be it a conventional setting where the bashful bride is walking coyly to the church or a bohemian beach ceremony. It is usually placed on the bride's ring finger of the left hand as per the ancient custom. The old belief is that your left fourth finger contains "love vein" or "vena amoris" which runs directly from your heart to your ring finger. But sometimes the right hand is preferred especially in Russia, Poland, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Norway and Bulgaria. Basically, it's an evolution from ancient Roman tradition, which believed right hand to be a positive entity, while the left one to be the negative. However, the 17th Century England approved of the thumb as a bride's wedding band finger.
A wedding ring is an ancient custom with a rich and interesting past backing it. Its glorious history spans from the old Egyptian, Hebrew and Christian customs and faiths. According to the historians, the practice of wedding band was first established by the Egyptian groom by putting the ring on his wife's finger. It showed that he had full confidence in his partner's efficiency to take care of him and his house. The wedding rings were made from plants and reeds, found lining the river Nile. The archaic Roman and Greek grooms had to present the wedding ring to his bride's father as a symbol of the age old custom of bride-purchase. The Roman wives were given two rings actually, gold and iron. The gold one was for public appearances and the iron one was for regular wear.
The Hebrew wedding rings were the most unique ones. It had a curious design and was styled akin to a roof of Jewish temple. It was usually very big and clumsy and thus could not be placed in a normal manner. Most of the times, the ring was actually the synagogue property borrowed just for the ceremony as an essential part of Hebrew wedding ritual and was taken out later on.
The Christians joined the parade after 860 and their ancient wedding rings were usually the elaborated ones with symbols of lyres and doves engraved on them. The Church however, considered it to be a "Heathenish" device and did not approve of its use for too long. But, from the 13th century, the wedding rings were again embraced with respect as Bishop Durant dubbed it as the "symbol of the union of hearts."
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