<P> In Britain, only women tended to wear a wedding ring until the 1st and 2nd World Wars, when married male soldiers started to wear rings to remind them of their partner . </P> <P> In Western cultures, a wedding ring is traditionally worn on the fourth finger, commonly called the "ring finger". This developed from the Roman "anulus pronubis" when a man would give a ring to the woman at their betrothal ceremony . Blessing the wedding ring and putting it on the bride's finger dates from the 11th century . In medieval Europe, during the Christian wedding ceremony the ring was placed in sequence on the thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers of the left hand . The ring was then left on the ring finger . In a few European countries, the ring is worn on the left hand prior to marriage, then transferred to the right during the ceremony . For example, a Greek Orthodox bride wears the ring on the left hand prior to the ceremony, then moves it to the right hand after the wedding . In England, the 1549 Prayer Book declared "the ring shall be placed on the left hand". By the 17th and 18th centuries the ring could be found on any finger after the ceremony--even on the thumb . </P> <P> The wedding ring is generally worn on the ring finger of the left hand in the former British Empire, certain parts of Western Europe, certain parts of Catholic Mexico, Bolivia and Central and Eastern Europe . These include: Australia, Botswana, Canada, Egypt, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and the US; France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Catalonia and Valencia (not the rest of Spain); Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia, and Romania . </P> <P> The wedding ring is worn on the ring finger of the right hand in some Orthodox and a small number of Catholic European countries, some Protestant Western European, as well as some Central and South American Catholic countries . In Eastern Europe, these include: Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine . In Central or Western Europe, these include: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Netherlands (if not Catholic), Norway, and (Catholic) Spain (except in Catalonia and Valencia). In Central or South America, these include: Colombia, Cuba, Peru, Venezuela . </P>

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