Wedding ring - which hand, which finger?

[Borek]

I have just learned about an interesting cultural difference.

On which hand/finger do you wear your wedding ring?

 

[Doc Al]

In the US, most folks wear the wedding ring on the left hand on the finger next to the pinky. (That finger is called the 'ring finger', of course. )

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_finger"

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

In the US, most folks wear the wedding ring on the left hand on the finger next to the pinky. (That finger is called the 'ring finger', of course. )

Yeah, but the finger next to the pinky on the right hand is called the 'ring finger' too. When we got married, we bought 24k pure gold rings. They are quite maleable, so they are probably real. However, mine gave me a rash and gold shouldn't do that so I'm not sure. Anyway, I don't wear it any more. My wife doesn't wear hers either. She needed to take it off once, but it wouldn't come off, so she had it cut. When I did wear it, it was on the finger next to the pinky on the left hand.

 

[Monique]

On whichever finger it fits during the day, which varies a lot (it's not a wedding ring though). The traditional finger to wear a wedding ring on differs so much with the geographic region and the religious background, that it doesn't really matter anyway.

 

[Dadface]

In the US, most folks wear the wedding ring on the left hand on the finger next to the pinky. (That finger is called the 'ring finger', of course. )

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_finger"

Same in the UK.

 

[GeorginaS]

I have just learned about an interesting cultural difference.

On which hand/finger do you wear your wedding ring?

What did you learn, Borek? I'm curious to hear what came to your attention.

 

[Monique]

What did you learn, Borek? I'm curious to hear what came to your attention.

See Doc Al's link. In my neck of the wood:

In the Netherlands, Protestants traditionally wear their engagement ring on the ring finger of the left hand, and their wedding ring on the ring finger of the right hand (a practice which is also widespread in Germany), whereas Roman Catholics do the opposite. In the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, the wedding ring on the ring finger of the left hand is traditional among Roman Catholics living in the provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders and in part of Limburg, but not elsewhere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_finger"

 

[Borek]

Most people in Poland wear rings on the ring finger on the right hand - that's what Doc & Monique already mentioned.

However, I have heard that in some countries that's what widows and widowers do. In the last years we had a large group of Poles going to work in London, and the fact that they had their wedding rings on the right hands was a common source of mistakes. Especially our girls were targeted by londoners thinking they were free.

 

[GeorginaS]

That's interesting, DocAl, Monique, and Borek. Sometimes, some traditional, local customs are so ingrained that it doesn't even occur to us to question whether it may be different elsewhere. In Canada, engagement and wedding ring are traditionally worn on the left-hand "ring finger".

But yes, interesting that it didn't ever occur to me to ask the question. I've learned something.