The Origin of Engagement Rings
An engagement ring is an indication that the person wearing it is going to be married, especially in Western cultures. On average, an engagement ring can cost up to five thousand dollars, which makes you wonder, why do we have engagement rings in the first place?
Well, the origin of the engagement ring can be reliably traced back to ancient Rome, though the ancient Egyptians are sometimes credited with having invented it, and ancient Greeks are said to have adopted the tradition.
Engagement rings are mostly worn on the ring finger of the left hand as it is believed this finger has a vein that leads directly to the heart. This idea popularized by Henry Swinburne in 1686 seems to have originated from an ancient Roman book entitled Attic Nights by Aulus Gellius. Unfortunately, there actually is no vein that is directly linked to the heart and is just an old belief.
The first well-documented use of the engagement ring was in 1477, when Archduke Maximilian of Austria gave a diamond ring to signify engagement to Mary of Burgundy. It is said to have sparked those in the upper social class and those who had significant wealth to give diamond rings to their loved ones.
It really wasn’t until 1947 he De Beers would revitalize the diamond industry after the Great Depression and create the now immortalized tagline “A Diamond Is Forever”.
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