Ring, ring... It's for you. It's history.

My aunt Marilyn posed an interesting question in her last post. One that was well worth a little research on my part...

So, there are conflicting viewpoints on the exact origins, but by most accounts the ritual of the ring exchange dates back to the Romans. According to Pliny, Prometheus (yes, the guy who invented fire by borrowing it from the flames of Olympus) invented the ring (but since Zeusy-poo didn't appreciate some mere mortal stealing his fire, the king of the Gods banished him to have his liver eaten out by an eagle; a sentence that Prometheus survived with only a chain link rock ring and a no-doubt seriously gruesome looking scar as evidence to his symbolic ritual damnation). Anyway, such began the ring.

Interestingly enough, ancient texts repeatedly show a correlation between ring and fire:

According to hadith, when the Prophet saw a man wearing a gold ring, he immediately removed it from the man’s hand and threw it away saying: “Wearing it (a gold ring) is like wrapping one’s hand with fire brand”.

(this may also evidence the little-known theory that Johnny Cash and June Carter were terrorists...)


Contrary to popular belief, the now culturally adapted Christian symbol was actually sharply criticized by the Apostles of Christ in the first century AD.

Peter writes in 64 AD:

3 Let your adorning be not the outward plaiting of hair and putting on of gold or clothing with garments,
4 But the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is very costly in the sight of God. 1 Peter 3:3-4

Then, we got Paul in 65 AD writing:

8 I desire therefore that men pray in every plane, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and reasoning;
9 Similiarly, that women adorn themselves in proper clothing with modesty and sobriety, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing, 1 Timothy 2:8-9

This biblical backlash chastised the then Jewish believers who succumbed to the temptations of a lavish life among the Gentiles, but by 200 AD, a single wedding band was widely popularized as a sign of marital devotion (even among the Christians).

In The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs, T. Sharper Knowlson discusses evidences of ring bearing to symbolize betrothal/marriage dating back to the 17th century and then myth busts that artery claim to all hell, though in the same year YHD Lee et al introduced some compelling arguments to the contrary.


In case, after all this dry blah blah blah, you need a little human reassurance...