Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Greek Orthodox Tradition

So, during the site visit to St. Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church, I noticed that Father George was wearing a wedding ring, he mentioned in his presentation that in the religion does allow priests to be married. That, however, was not what caught my attention. It was that he was wearing the wedding ring on his ring finger of his right hand. I thought maybe he had just put it accidentally on the wrong hand this morning or something.
It turns out that he meant to put his wedding ring on his right hand. The tradition goes way back to a time when the left hand was thought of as evil. As the article points out, "the Latin word for left is 'sinister.'" This would conclude that putting a symbol of purity and religion, such as a wedding ring, on the left hand would not coincide with the meaning. The main religion that follows this tradition is Orthodox Christians and the regions that also wear the ring on the right hand are Germany, Greece, Russia, Spain, India, Columbia, Venezuela and Poland.
But why don't all religions have a married couple wear rings on the right hand? The tradition of wearing a wedding ring on the left hand started in the classical times when it was believed that a vein in the fourth finger of the left hand went straight to the heart. The vein was coined the vein of love, or vena amoris. It is mainly the Western regions (such as UK, United States, Ireland, Mexico, Brazil, Iran, Chile, Italy, France, Sweden, and Slovenia) and religions that wear the ring on the left hand.
http://greekweddingsandtraditions.com/2008/01/27/your-wedding-ringleft-or-right-hand/

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