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Romance of the Ring

By: Rokai Kolam

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A wedding band is known to be the most symbolic piece of jewelry worn by most married couples. It represents the everlasting union and fusion of husband and wife, joined together symbolically by the ring worn on the left hand’s fourth finger. Once married, couples seldom take off their wedding rings.

It was believed that the Egyptian Pharaohs first used the circle—a shape with neither a beginning nor an ending, to symbolize eternity. Wearing a ring as a public pledge in honor of the marriage vow did come into fashion until the ascendancy of Rome. The Romans in the olden times used the first wedding bands, which were more symbols of ownership for claimimg women. Betrothal rings called "Anulus Pronubus" were made of iron to symboloze strength and endurance. It is also believed that Romans were the first people who had their rings engraved.

During the Medieval era, gold rings were set with gems and became fashionable. The most popular gems became symbolic: red ruby symbolized the heart’s color, blue sapphire was a reflection of the heavens, and the most powerful and coveted gem was the diamond. The tradition where the engagement ring and the wedding band were worn on the fourth finger of the left hand is reputed to have originated from the Egyptians, who had a belief that the vein of love (vena amoris) ran directly from the tip of the finger to that of the heart.

That finger hence became known as the ring finger. This finger was connected to marriage and love. In many parts of the world, this finger is still called the ring finger. In Russia and Norway the wedding band however is worn on the right hand not on the left, but on the same finger. The tradition in which a man proposes with a gold ring has been a practice even way back in 860 AD. At that time Pope Nicholas I mandated that a man should show his personal financial sacrifice by giving the bride a gold ring for the woman’s hand in marriage. This practice has lasted to the present where the gold ring has been elevated with the more expensive diamond wedding band.

In the twelfth century, Pope Innocent III further decreed that couples intending to marry must exchange rings as part of the wedding ceremony. A few years later Pope Innocent III instituted a mandatory waiting period between engagement and marriage, which is believed to be the reason why women today end up with both an engagement ring and a wedding ring.

In 1477 the Archduke Maximilian of Austria gave Mary of Burgundy a diamond ring and ended up marrying her the following day. Little did he realize that his diamond ring tradition would become popular around the globe centuries. From the 18th to the 19th centuries, emeralds and sapphires were the choiciest stones for engagement rings but these stones were superseded by the diamond with the flooding of the world market by South Africa.

For sometime, diamonds became so common that they went out of fashion. Sales of diamond fell until 1947 when DeBeers launched a brilliant marketing campaign with its slogan "A Diamond is Forever". Diamonds have then become the best choice for engagement and wedding rings.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Nevertheless, whatever metal and stone you choose for your engagement rings and wedding bands, it is not the material ring itself that matters. It is the commitment and love behind it that gives it its priceless value.

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