The wedding ring has long been a symbol of commitment and the exchange of jewellery between bride and groom on the occasion of their wedding dates back to ancient times. The ancient Romans used circular iron bands as proof of a binding wedding contract, and later, around the second century AD, gold started to be used to add both beauty and value to the rings.
If you are curious, you can usually tell at a glance if a person, particularly a woman, is married, by seeing whether she is wearing a wedding band on her “ring” or fourth finger of her left hand. This particular finger was believed by the ancient Greeks to contain a certain vein, the vena amoris, which runs directly to the heart.
In mediaeval times, wedding rings began to be set with coloured gemstones with various colours of significance for the wearers, such as their birthstones, while the first record of a diamond engagement ring was the ring given by the Archduke Maximilian of Austria to Mary of Burgundy in 1477, starting an expensive trend of “keeping up with the archdukes”, which continues today.
In the Middle Ages, some men even kept a betrothal ring suspended from the band of their hat to be ahead of the competition in the case that the woman of their dreams should chance along. This was truly an era of romance, when betrothal rings inscribed with poems and love messages came into fashion and stayed popular until Victorian times.
If you are curious, you can usually tell at a glance if a person, particularly a woman, is married, by seeing whether she is wearing a wedding band on her “ring” or fourth finger of her left hand. This particular finger was believed by the ancient Greeks to contain a certain vein, the vena amoris, which runs directly to the heart.
In mediaeval times, wedding rings began to be set with coloured gemstones with various colours of significance for the wearers, such as their birthstones, while the first record of a diamond engagement ring was the ring given by the Archduke Maximilian of Austria to Mary of Burgundy in 1477, starting an expensive trend of “keeping up with the archdukes”, which continues today.
In the Middle Ages, some men even kept a betrothal ring suspended from the band of their hat to be ahead of the competition in the case that the woman of their dreams should chance along. This was truly an era of romance, when betrothal rings inscribed with poems and love messages came into fashion and stayed popular until Victorian times.