In our day to day lives, we don’t usually sit to think about the reasoning behind traditions, although many times they have a huge cultural and historical significance.
This is why today, we have decided to uncover the reason behind why do married couples wear their rings on the left hand in most of the countries worldwide, while in others they do it on their right hand.
It’s especially relevant to know this if your wedding day is near, so let’s find the answers to why are wedding rings worn a particular way.
Original tradition: the right hand
The romans were the first ones to start using their wedding rings on the ring finger of their right hand. Back then, they used to believe that the left hand was unlucky and unsafe.
For many centuries in India, it was a tradition that rings were only to be worn on the right hand because the left hand was “dirty”. Nowadays, it is allowed to wear the ring on both hands.
Even though this was the case many years ago, we can now see that it is more common to wear the wedding ring on the left hand. Why is that? Let us explain.
Why did it change to the left hand?
Carrying the wedding ring on the left hand is a relatively recent tradition that began early in the XVIII century.
In an article from the late XIX century, it is supposed that in some country the change of hand from right, the dominant hand, to left, was a respect sign that indicated the respect that the woman had towards their husband.
During these times, men didn’t wear wedding rings, just women. Of course, this eventually changed, and in this way, wearing the ring on the left hand became more popular.
In the list of countries where the wedding ring is worn on the left hand, we find countries such as Australia, Canada, Egypt, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, the USA, France, Italy, Sweden and the majority of Asian countries.
Countries such as Lebanon, Turkey, Syria and Brazil have the custom of wearing the wedding ring on the right hand before the wedding and then change it to the left hand after the event.
Furthermore, in some countries, after the wife or the husband passes out, their partner switches the wedding ring to the right hand, to symbolize the unbreakable bond with the deceased loved one.
Now that you know why wedding rings are usually worn on the left hand, let’s explore about why is the finger next to the pinky called the ring finger and used for this purpose.
Why do they call it the “ring finer”?
Ancient romans and Egyptians believed that the ring finger possessed a certain nerve or blood vessel that goes straight to the heart. Romans even had a special name for it: The Love Vein.
In this sense, if someone wore a ring on this finger, it meant that their heart already belonged to someone.
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