WEDDING RINGS

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 177, 14 April 1923, Page 15

WEDDING RINGS

Tho marriage service to-day is in the main what it was centuries ago, but there are marked differences in the giving of the ring. The bridegroom used to put it on the thumb first and then on the other fingers in succession in the name of the Holy Trinity, placing it on the fourth finger as ho said Amen. It is still termed the fourth finger in the Prayer Book, though we arc accustomed rather to call it the third, not reckoning the thumb in, writes Arthur S. May in the “Daily Mail.” It was the right hand and not the lift. The change from the right to the left hand is an odd product of the Reformation, and, of course, the ring is now slipped immediately upon tho fourth finger. The Puritans prohibited the ring altogether as a heathenish practice, but some of their own ministers persisted in using it, and it came back again at the Restoration. Why the fourth finger was selected has been much discussed. The old explanation was that to that finger came an artery from the heart. This is anatomically inaccurate, and a better reason perhaps is that the ring was placed where it was lesj exposed to wear and tear. An old writer tells us that at one time the ring was made of iron, the metal being hard and durable to signify the lasting nature of tho contract, and the circular shape denoting that love should circulate and flow continuously. In point of fact, however, a ring is hardly any more necessary than a best man or giving the bride away, though even a marriage at Gretna was never considered quite decent without it. The judges have laid down in so many words that the essential part of the service is the reciprocal taking each other for wedded wife and wedded husband till parted by death and, having joined hands, being declared married persons.