Why People Actually Wear Engagement Rings

Ever wonder why people get married by proposing to each other with engagement rings

Or why the vast majority of engagement rings are topped by diamonds? Well, like so many things, the answers to those questions begin in ancient Rome

and end in a 20th century advertising campaign. So, today we're going to take a look at how proposing marriage with an engagement ring

became a worldwide tradition. Okay, sit back, relax, and try to look surprised as we get on bended knees

to propose some weird history. While some historians have suggested that the engagement

ring tradition was started by the ancient Egyptians and later adopted by the ancient Greeks

nothing can be definitively proven. What we do know, however, is that engagement rings date at

least as far back as the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, the ring had a definite practical purpose

It was a public symbol of a couple's legal contract, because nothing says romance like

contractual legal obligations. That's like a married couple wearing matching, we signed an agreement t-shirts

Incidentally, the legal implications is why only women wore engagement rings. It symbolized a woman moving from her father's legal ownership to her husband's

Basically, it's like a tiny collar, maybe a little too much like a collar

Roman marriage contracts linked two families, and the ring showed which women were off the

market. Roman men often gave women two engagement rings, one made of iron and the other made of gold

Women wore the iron ring at home because it represented strength. And home is where the

strength is. Or maybe it's where a Roman family just kept their weight bench. We'll never know

But when engaged women went outside, they put on their gold ring to show off their wealth

As long ago as the classical era, women wore engagement rings on their fourth finger

which is still called the ring finger today. The reason for this was that Romans believed a vein

ran from the ring finger to the heart, which is scientifically inaccurate, but still much more

romantic than the idea of wearing an iron bill of sale on your hand. After the fall of Rome

the tradition of betrothal rings continued in Europe, even as it began to take on a slightly

different significance. For example, the 7th century Visigothic Code declared that ballot

engagement should include a ring, which represented a pledge that shall under no circumstances be

broken. Here, the ring was more representative of the promise to marry, rather than the betrothed's

current property status. Meanwhile, in the 9th century, Pope Nicholas I explained how wedding traditions differed

in the Roman Catholic Church compared to the Greek Orthodox Church. The pope specifically pointed two engagement rings, explaining

The betrothed man joins the bride to himself with vows through the finger marked by him with the ring of faith In this case the ring represented the couple bond of faith In either case however just like today the engagement ring kicked off a period of planning and waiting

that would end with two people getting married. In 1477, an engagement brought together

the powerful Habsburg heir, Archduke Maximilian I of Austria, and Mary, the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy

The union would make peace between neighboring powers and expand the Holy Roman Empire, which

is a lot of pressure to put on a marriage. Even more stressful than finding a plus one

for an all-you-can-eat Valentine's Day brunch. This betrothal was also the first time in recorded history

that a man gave his fiance a diamond engagement ring, wrecking the curve forever

But according to one legend, Archduke Maximilian almost didn't give Mary of Burgundy that diamond

The story goes that after Mary's father signed off on the betrothal, Maximilian and Mary still

had yet to meet. So Maximilian traveled from Austria to Burgundy to formally introduce himself

to his future wife. After all, they were going to have to meet eventually, so they might as well

get it out of the way to avoid any surprises on the big day. Along the way, celebrating villagers

showered the archduke with gold and silver, which he used to buy the diamond engagement ring

Basically, he stopped at a jewelry store on the way to her house to pick up a ring using money he

hustled on the road. Might want to keep that story to yourself, Max. When Archduke Maximilian

presented Mary of Burgundy with a diamond ring, it started a new trend. Europeans began to

experiment with ways to make diamond rings even more impressive by developing new tools to cut

the stones. Jewelers, in turn, came up with inventive new ways to set those cut stones

Wealthy couples did their part to invigorate the burgeoning trend by snapping up these flashy new

rings. That is, when they could find them. Prior to the 18th century, the only source for diamonds

was India. That meant they were still fairly rare in Europe, and therefore extremely expensive. In

fact, it wouldn't be until the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in 1726, and later in South

Africa, that diamond prices would finally begin to drop. Sometimes, as is common today, men gave

women betrothal rings, and then the couple would exchange rings at the wedding. But that changed

during the Protestant Reformation. Some thriftier or otherwise less showy couples would skip the engagement ring altogether

and simply exchange wedding rings. In other cases, the style of engagement rings changed

Unlike the expensive diamond ring Maximilian gave Mary of Burgundy in the 15th century, some couples began

opting for simpler engagement rings and more elaborate wedding bands. An unadorned gold band might serve as the betrothal ring

with a more expensive ring presented during the actual ceremony to represent matrimony Meanwhile some people objected to the entire idea of engagement rings English Puritans argued against their use in the 16th and 17th centuries because English Puritans famously do not like anything

As 17th century poet Samuel Butler wrote in the satirical poem, Hudibras, others were for abolishing that tool of matrimony, a ring

with which the unsanctified bridegroom is married only to a thumb. The poem was poking fun at the Puritans' objection to engagement rings

and also refers to the common custom of placing an engagement ring on the thumb rather than the

ring finger. Apparently, back then, people accessorized like characters from the 1995

film Hackers. Speaking of which, as anyone with a working knowledge of fashion will tell you

trends are cyclical. While engagement rings fell out of favor from around the 16th century to the

19th century, they eventually came roaring back during the Victorian era. In fact, it was Queen

Victoria herself who helped make engagement rings fashionable again when Prince Albert proposed to

her in 1839. Prince Albert gave Victoria a custom ring, which was a little different than engagement

rings as we think of them today. How so? Well, for starters, this one was shaped like a serpent

The serpent had rubies for eyes and a diamond mouth, while the center of the ring displayed

an emerald, Victoria's birthstone. Now, that's a bling ring. Made from 18 karat gold, the ring

shaped borrowed from a classical Roman symbol of love and looked overwhelmingly like something

you'd find in a He-Man cosplayer's rummage drawer. Thanks to Albert and Victoria, birthstone engagement rings

became popular during the Victorian period, a trend that lasted until relatively inexpensive

South African diamonds flooded the market. As for Victoria, that dazzling snake ring

must have really charmed her, because she stayed married to Albert for 21 years, right up until his death in 1861

In 1867, a 15-year-old boy named Erasmus Stephanus Jacobs was playing on his father's

farm near Hoketown in the northern Cape province of South Africa when he discovered a strange

shiny rock on the banks of the Orange River. A knowledgeable neighbor soon identified that rock

as a diamond, an assessment that was quickly corroborated by a mineralogist from Grahamstown

The discovery of that 21 and a quarter carat diamond, today known as the Eureka diamond

kicked off a diamond rush, which is similar to a gold rush, but pointier

Soon, diamonds flooded the world, and even middle-class couples could afford a diamond

engagement ring. In fact, diamond prices dropped so much that a conglomerate stepped in to create a monopoly

to artificially increase their value. In 1889, the De Beers Consolidated Mines took over South Africa's diamond industry

By the 20th century De Beers controlled the world diamonds and inflated prices by limiting supply Good old conglomerates always looking out for the little guy Interestingly in 1967 De Beers would purchase the Eureka diamond and gift it to the people of South Africa

Today, it could be seen on display at the Mine Museum in Kimberley. The impact of the First World War, followed by the Great Depression

created a market crash in diamond engagement rings. Rather than pay for an expensive diamond ring

cash-strapped couples chose less expensive stones or went for simpler bands, like the Protestants

of yore. De Beers, which controlled most of the diamond market, found themselves struggling to

convince people to buy expensive rings during a worldwide economic contraction. To stop the

financial bleeding, in the 1930s, the diamond conglomerate turned to aggressive advertising

to convince couples to invest in diamonds. As part of their strategy, De Beers even pressured

actresses to wear diamond rings on the red carpet, kind of like sponsored Instagram posts

only decades before any of the Kardashians were invented. I'm not just a TV show

The De Beers marketing campaign worked like magic. And from 1938 to 1941, diamond sales increased a whopping 55%

Even more impressive, between 1939 and 1979, the total sales of diamonds in the United States

rose from $23 million to $2.1 billion. Yeah, that's billion with a b-b-b-b-b-b-b

B, the ad campaign aimed to convince Americans to buy bigger, more expensive stones

positioning diamonds as a critical part of getting engaged. As part of the campaign, a copywriter named Mary Frances Garrity came up with a slogan

that would sell a million diamond engagement rings. A diamond is forever

The slogan was so popular, it would become a lasting part of pop culture

And it even inspired the title of one of the most forgettable James Bond movies

By the 1960s, 80% of engaged or married women in the US owned a diamond engagement ring

Another critical element of De Beers' advertising strategy promoted the idea of a diamond engagement

ring costing only one month's salary, rather than assigning it a specific wallet-curdling

dollar amount. In the 1980s, the company, ever concerned about their customers' best interests, upped

that vague amount to two months' salary. Although De Beers still declares a diamond is forever, the dominance of diamond engagement

rings may be fading. In the 21st century, negative perceptions of blood diamonds and a move toward conflict-free diamonds

along with the exorbitant cost of the stones, have convinced a growing number of couples to

choose rings with emeralds, sapphires, rubies, and other gems. While diamonds still remain the

most popular gemstone for engagement rings, even De Beers acknowledges a declining interest in

diamonds. In its 2018 Diamond Insight report, De Beers concluded, most of these youngest

consumers have yet to reach the level of affluence that will allow them to increase their active

interest in diamonds. In other words, we may have made these rocks too damn expensive