Wedding ring customs that originated in long ago history.

Betrothal ring  –  An old Roman custom confirming that the marriage contract would be carried out. It was the first part of a dowry given, and it meant the woman was no longer for sale as the first part of the monetary settlement had been paid.

Wedding ring – many primitive peoples who believed in magic used a rope around the waist or the hand and feet, and later  a ring, to symbolise that the bride was captured and spoken for, and also to ward off any evil spirits hovering around the bride and ensure marital bliss.

The ring hand– a symbol of the humiliating tradition of the man as the master – the right hand of the family –  and the woman being the slave .  The right hand stood for power and authority while the left hand expressed submission and serfdom.

The ring finger – Ancient Greek and Roman anatomists  believed a vein or nerve led from the heart to the third finger  –   the healing finger  –  so they romantically linked this finger to the heart. There are also some more practical reasons the third finger continues to be used. It’s the most prominent for displaying a ring, and it cannot be extended to its full length on its own and usually remains slightly bent, preventing the ring slipping off.

So next time you look at a wedding ring, you can think back to how it came to be on someone’s left third finger,

Rituals of courting and marriage from ‘How Did it Begin’ by R. Brasch first published in 1965. In the word ‘Wedlock’, the lock isn’t a lock and chain but the Anglo-Saxon for gift, as wed means a promise. Wedlock pledged the gift of the happiness of a man and a woman. Nearly all courtship rituals can be traced back to early practises designed to ensure the fertility of a union. Kissing is thought to have started because primitive man believed exhaled air had magic power. 

Signing an X for  a kiss began in the Middle Ages when people were illiterate and used an X to sign and would then kiss the parchment to affirm their sincerity, like kissing the Bible to take an oath. The word ‘Spooning’ to describe courting came for the custom of young men in Wales to carve an elaborate spoon to give as a love token to the girl of their choice in the place of an engagement ring. Leap year proposals by women to men were a rare chance for women to correct an unjust state of affairs, just as the extra day in a leap year was a topsy-turvy day, a leapt over day in other years. In a time when there was a surplus of women, it was a chance of ensuring they were not left on the shelf.