are wedding rings an ancient tradition or a modern marketing gimmick you might be surprised what's up manly bands fans manly fans not to be confused with only fans that's completely different type of content uh but aren't you here i sat down on the toilet and was able to google some things and find out the history of wedding bands so naturally i'm an expert the tradition of exchanging rings dates back 3 000 years ago egyptian pharaohs were the first to use rings to represent eternity due to the circle not having a beginning or ending the shape also reflects the sun and moon which the egyptians worshipped the space in the middle of the ring represented a gateway to the unknown the egyptian uroboros rings portrayed a serpent swallowing its tail representing the eternal cycle of things the euro burros is one of the oldest symbols in the world and its name means tale devourer in greek but i bet you thought i was going to say egyptian when alexander the great conquered the egyptians the greeks adopted the tradition of giving rings to their lovers to represent devotion many of these rings depicted eros or cupid the god of love when the romans conquered greece they picked up on this tradition as well and began using iron and copper rings in marriage ceremonies the iron rings sometimes had key motifs to symbolize that the wife now had control over the household goods by the second century however most rings were gold gold rings became more fancy over the centuries because they showed up how rich the giver was there was never any real symbolism with the material the ring was made out of these guys just wanted to show you how loaded they were those egyptians were really good at choosing symbolic reasons to wear the rings they decided that the ring finger contained avena amorous or vein of love which led directly to the heart the romans were all down with that belief as well which just goes to show you that neither knew any anatomy because it's not true but we're still rocking that tradition because if it ain't broke after a few hundred years medieval europeans started putting rubies in their rings to symbolize passion sapphires for the heavens and diamonds for steadfast strength around the 1600s couples started wearing bands during the engagement period during the wedding ceremony the groom placed his band on the bride's finger uniting the wedding bands in a match set also in the 1600s we started to see poetry inscribed inside and outside of the wedding band not everyone was on board with the idea of using jewelry to symbolize their marriage the puritans in colonial america thought jewelry was a waste of money so puritan husbands gave their wives thimbles instead of rings after brides used their thimbles to sew clothes and textiles for their new home they could then saw off the tops of their thimbles to create rings now not to take away from the thimble rings but the rings that became more popular over the centuries are the rings that contain diamonds the first recorded diamond wedding ring dates back to the late 1300s or early 1400s when it was left by an english widow in her will the first famous diamond engagement ring was given in 1477 by archduke maximilian of austria to mary of burgundy the rings said to have been made up of small flat diamonds that spelled out mary's initial m a fitting gift for the future duchess so were wedding rings just a symbol of a couple's love and wealth or did they serve another purpose too in the 12th century the christian church declared marriage to be a holy sacrament and established a church ceremony rings were a part of the ceremony and it became the rule that no man should place any type of ring on a woman's hand unless he meant to get married before this rings didn't always signify marriage they're often given as tokens of devotion or to represent betrothal this is when two types of rings emerged the engagement ring and wedding ring now women have been wearing wedding rings for thousands of years but it didn't quite catch on for men to wear wedding bands so when did men start wearing wedding rings it wasn't until world war ii that men started to regularly wear wedding rings the tradition only caught on when american and european soldiers wore wedding rings as a way to remember their wives and sweethearts back home the tradition continued through the korean war and after this wedding rings for men caught on among civilians now remember when i mentioned that back in medieval times people started using precious stones in their rings well up until the 1940s diamonds were just one of many gems that people used as engagement stones their wild popularity is mainly due to de beers that's not to be confused with but the diamond company that controlled the majority of the world's diamonds at the time when people stopped buying diamonds during the economic downturn of the 1930s de beers launched an epic marketing campaign they showered diamonds on hollywood actresses like marilyn monroe to make diamonds glamorous symbols of romance de beers also came up with the still popular slogan diamonds are forever and de beers marketing campaign worked like crazy in the u.s alone the percentage of brides who received a diamond ring jumped from just 10 in 1939 all the way up to 80 percent in 1990.
Once de beers started marketing in china the percentage of chinese brides who received diamond engagement rings jumped from nearly none in 1990 to more than 50 in 2019 wedding rings symbolized commitment love and devotion and in the past they signified a contract between the couples and their families they were tokens or even security deposits that showed a man's promise was as good as gold in recent years wedding rings have evolved into statements of individuality and partnership worn by all genders so according to my extensive bathroom research that's a brief history of what it rings over the past couple thousand years today you'll find couples worldwide sporting their rings as a token of their love and to add a little jazz and pizzazz to their wardrobe so if you want to add a little jazz and pizzazz to your own wardrobe you know who to call archie out [Music] there was never any material any symbolism the ring was made damn it not to be confused with only fans that's a completely different type of content but archie here
