Married - Which Hand Do You Wear Ring On?

[Zarkow]

The situation in Holland is that the wedding ring is for Catholics on the LEFT hand and for Protestants on the RIGHT hand.

IMHO it has to do with religion. That's why in mainly catholic countries like Belgium, France, Italy the wedding ring is worn LEFT and in mainly protestant countries like Germany, Denmark the wedding ring is worn RIGHT.

In my situation (Dutch, Catholic) I wore my engagement ring RIGHT and after marriage my wedding ring LEFT.

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So with your logic Sweden is Catholic?

[KronbergTH]

Wasn't sure it was a theological question - I thought the use of rings predated even the late arrival of Christianity to Denmark. Also despite having officially a high number of members in the Folkekirke (because all birth registration procedures have to take place through the parish church offices), Denmark has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, church attendance records in Europe.It would be interesting if you could display your knowledge and therefore explain why Denmark should have another tradition from e.g. the UK.

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What ever church attendance records, most Danes are still baptized, confirmed, married, and buried in the Danish National Church, and the minister are still the one to putt the rings on the fingers (even that is a new Church ritual). And that has nothing to do with any birth registration procedures. Wedding on the RIGHT, and engagement on the left, but some do it opposite. Many are very confused, and that may be the main reason for a mix-up and for using Hollywood traditions. I have no idea why it is different in UK, Thailand, USA, etc. I am just telling about how we do it in Denmark and how I have experienced it in Kingdom.

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The situation in Holland is that the wedding ring is for Catholics on the LEFT hand and for Protestants on the RIGHT hand. IMHO it has to do with religion. That's why in mainly catholic countries like Belgium, France, Italy the wedding ring is worn LEFT and in mainly protestant countries like Germany, Denmark the wedding ring is worn RIGHT. In my situation (Dutch, Catholic) I wore my engagement ring RIGHT and after marriage my wedding ring LEFT.

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Good explanation, and that also explans why Hollywood wears rings on the LEFT as Hollywood often is following Catholic or Jewish traditions. Thanks!

[Thomas_Merton]

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Good explanation, and that also explans why Hollywood wears rings on the LEFT as Hollywood often is following Catholic or Jewish traditions. Thanks!

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Well I had rather hoped that the honourable theologian would have been able to enlighten us. Never mind, this is what I have found out:

History of the Ring and Marriage

It's perhaps the most recognizable and widely known ongoing symbolic functions of the ring. And it typically takes two--an engagement ring followed by a wedding band.

Weddings more often than not also include some rubbish about the perfection of a circle, no beginning, no end, etc., forever joined, all that sort of nonsense. Nothing about rings being round because your fingers are. And nothing about people having gotten married before without bands of silver, gold, or as is now increasingly popular, platinum, but there we are. The tradition goes a long way back.

Of course, before you get the ring, you should know where you're going to put it.

The Finger

Ancient folks had ten choices, and went through a couple of them:

* India: The thumb

* 3rd Century Greece: The index finger

* Anglo-Saxon: Third finger, right hand

Western tradition took for what we now know as the ring finger from the later Greeks, who mistakenly but romantically believed that the vena amoris--the vein of love--ran from that finger directly to the heart.

Running Rings Around You

They weren't always requisite, even if they were used. Sometimes, it just takes a pope or king to get things done. Someone with money, anyway.

* 2nd Century BCE: Plautus mentions the giving of rings as tokens of love.

* 4th Century: St. Augustine is recorded as asking fellow priests to permit weddings without rings by this time, so they're a part of the ceremony, but still optional.

* 860: Pope Nicholas I decrees that not only must a marriage be preceded by a period of engagement, but that engagement must be 'bought' with a ring of gold--indicating a financial sacrifice on the part of the groom.

* 12th Century: Pope Innocent III one-ups his papal predecessor, and makes the long-optional wedding ring mandatory.

* 1477: Show-off King Maximillian of Austria chucks a diamond at Mary of Burgundy for their engagement, setting an expensive trend.

* 16th Century: King of England Edward VI catches up with the past, and decrees what western history already knew to be the ring finger, the ring finger. The Book of Common Prayer designates which hand it's on.

* 20th Century: Some wise guy in the marketing department at De Beers sets two months' salary as a decent amount to spend on the diamond.

As in all marriages there are contradictions

(taken primarily from Cunnington, Phillis and Catherine Lucas. Costume for Births, Marriages, and Deaths. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, c1972.)

A fourteenth-century ritual from Cologne, Germany states, "So sall der Brudgam dan der Rynck memen ind stechen dan der Rynck der Bruyt in yren Vynger neyst den kleynen Vynger." Translation: "So the bridegroom shall take the ring and place it on the bride’s finger next to the little finger."

In contrast to these minimal instructions, English and French rituals developed a more formulaic manner of bestowing the ring. We first see this in the twelfth-century Bury St. Edmunds missal. The ring is given to the bride by the bridegroom with the invocation of the Trinity. The ring is placed on the right thumb of the bride with the words "In the name of the Father"; on the index finger with the words "And of the Son"; and then on the middle finger where it remains "And of the Holy Spirit. Amen." After this, the bridegroom recites the following formula:

With this ring I thee wed,

This gold and silver I thee give,

With my body I thee worship

And with this dowry I thee endow

Which finger and which hand the ring was worn on varied with the time and place. Isidore of Seville wrote in the early seventh century that the ring was to be worn on the fourth finger because there was a vein in that finger which carried blood to the heart. Cunnington and Lucas note that rings were worn on the right hand in Catholic Europe; wearing the wedding ring on the left hand was a custom introduced during the Reformation. Moreover, there was also a period during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries when some women wore their wedding rings on their thumbs. Thirteenth century illustrations from the Cunnington and Lucas book show rings worn on either the index or third finger.

Perhaps a Thai historian could tell us about the Thai tradition?

[patricktan]

I don't wear ring in my country till I am in Bangkok.....my GF wanna me to wear it and not allow to take it off at all time????????

[Totster]

I don't wear ring in my country till I am in Bangkok.....my GF wanna me to wear it and not allow to take it off at all time????????

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Oh... ok....

totster

[frenchFARANGbkk]

I don't wear ring in my country till I am in Bangkok.....my GF wanna me to wear it and not allow to take it off at all time????????

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And you obey? Be careful, she will soon ask you to become monk and pay 10 million baht dowry if you marry...