Wedding Rings

History Of Wedding Rings

Wedding rings are the symbol that men and women wear in order to be easily recognized as couples committed to a married life. The history of wedding ring lies back in the ancient Egyptian civilization that displayed the wearing of such symbol in a shape of twisted and braided rushes and reeds in ring forms for fingers and bracelet for wrists. The circle represented by the ring was considered the symbol of eternity where time has no beginning and no end and life returns to itself in the endless cycle of nature. It is said that the hole in the center is more than space, it stands for the symbol of a door opening itself to the things that are more or less accessible to the mortal ones.

That is the reason why the ring and offering it as a gift have become so connected to the feeling of love, considering that love carries within itself the eternity and the path to exploring new territories more or less known to the ones that are supposed to wear the ring especially in the time length of a marriage. The fact that the wedding ring is worn on the third finger of the left hand is due to the ancient Roman belief that the “vein of love” travels through this finger directly from the heart.

Because the material on those times was the one that didn’t last too long (more probably the hemp, or leather or bone) the ancient Egyptian civilizations started to model the rings out of metal having precious stones inserted on them, but the purpose of such rings was mostly to show the wealth of the person to wear them. Romans, in their turn used iron as the metal to manufacture the rings showing the strength a man’s love had for the woman he had chosen conferring her the title of being THE one, and as such eliminating the potential rivals.

Offering silver or gold rings was meant to entrust the betrothed one with the valuable property of her future husband, thus ensuring the fiancé of her further commitment. Later in medieval Europe these precious metal rings were added gemstones such as sapphires, rubies and the most valuable and still present in nowadays jewelry tradition, the powerful diamond. The 17^th century reveals silver as a widely used metal in the wedding rings of France and England displaying at the same time a trend for inscribing the bands with verses of faith and hope that soon became very popular in the art of jewels crafting.

Later we find gold among the preferences of the wedding rings leaving the silver to be the metal for the engagement rings. Actually gold is still the most favored precious metal to hold the honor of creating the wedding rings; it is so favored that a superstition is even there – if a wedding couple is not married with a gold made ring then they have to be sure that bad luck will chase them in their future married life.

The present times find the wedding rings as the most important element in the multitude of symbols that compose the wedding event. If the other details of a wedding extinguish in time, the wedding rings are the only ones to be preserved, hence the characteristic of eternity they stand for. AMIN!