When looking into the history of wedding traditions, it is surprising how many of them can trace back to ancient Egypt. The wearing of wedding rings, for example, was recorded within 6000-year-old Egyptian papyrus rolls. These first wedding rings were crafted from braided hemp or reeds and worn as a marital status symbol. The husband placed the ring on his wife’s finger, a custom which entrusted and entitled them both to each other. Over time, this practice evolved to include more durable rings crafted of leather, bone, or ivory, and eventually, they advanced enough to work with various precious gemstones and metals such as gold.
Ancient Egyptian wedding ring beliefs
Ancient Egyptian pharaohs considered the circle to be a symbol of eternity because it had no beginning or end, and with this in mind, the wedding ring served to signify the perpetual love of the spouses. These beliefs are still held by many today, but one belief the ancients held that we haven’t adopted is the belief that the opening in the ring denoted a gateway to the unknown.
The custom of wearing the wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand also originated in this culture because the ancient Egyptians believed a special vein, the vena amoris (vein of love) ran from this finger directly to the heart. The ancient Romans adopted this belief and wore wedding rings on the same finger. While this belief isn’t anatomically correct, today in the West, we still call this finger the “ring finger.”
Passing on the wedding ring tradition
One of the oldest ring symbols in the world is the Egyptian ouroboros ring. It portrays a serpent swallowing its tail creating the eternal cycle of things. The word ouroboros means “tail devourer” in Greek.
Later history includes ornamental finger rings worn by wealthy Egyptian women. This included the famed scarab design. Rings became more common, and by the Middle Kingdom grew more complex. Over time Greek and Roman rings styles supplanted Egyptian styles during the Ptolemaic dynasty.
When Alexander the Great conquered the Egyptians, the Greeks adopted the practice of giving rings to their lovers. These rings were thought to represent devotion, and many of them depicted Eros or Cupid, the god of love. Then Rome conquered Greece. They also adopted the wedding ring tradition but with iron and copper wedding rings. The iron rings sometimes bore key designs that symbolized that the wife now had control of the household goods. By the 2nd century CE, most wedding rings were gold, and by the 3rd and 4th centuries CE the style of gold wedding rings became more luxurious and a way to flaunt the giver’s wealth.
We mirror the Ancient Egyptian wedding ring traditions in that we even have wedding rings, that we wear them on our left hand ring finger, and that they indicate our marital status. Over 6000 years, rings have changed but why they are worn has not.