Engagement rings are steeped in tradition and the practice of offering a ring as a symbol of commitment and love goes back nearly five thousand years to the ancient Egyptians.

The Egyptians believed that the circle of a ring represented an eternal and closed bond between a couple, and so began the custom of a ring offering as a symbol of love.

Moving forward a few thousand years to the late 15th century, we learn of the first documented case where the engagement ring was seen as a precursor to the commitment of marriage, and so began the tradition that we all know today.

The story goes that a smitten Austrian, Archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg, started it all on August 17th, 1477. Princess Mary of Burgundy, the Archduke's betrothed, was the first girl to receive a diamond ring to celebrate an engagement. He proposed marriage and placed the engagement ring on the fourth finger (or ring finger) of her left hand. This placement of the ring dates back to the Romans who believed that the "vein of love" or vena amoris began at the tip of the ring finger and flowed directly to the heart. And so began the tradition of not only the engagement ring, but also that it be worn on a specific finger.

For a few hundred years, the engagement ring became common practice for proposing marriage but the diamond engagement ring did not fully come into vogue until after a groundbreaking marketing campaign in 1947 by the DeBeers diamond company.

Frances Gerety, a young copywriter at the time, coined what became the best advertising slogan of the twentieth century according to Advertising Age magazine-the infamous "A Diamond is Forever". The ad campaign positioned diamonds as a symbol of love and commitment, and therefore the quintessential engagement ring. In an ironic twist to the story, the young copywriter never got married.

The smart folks at DeBeers who were looking for ways to further increase diamond sales, followed up the campaign by suggesting that two to three months salary was a proper amount to spend on a symbol of your love. And so began a new tradition for many, of extending one's self financially to be able to propose marriage.

History tells us that the ritual behind the ring is genuine and stems from ancient civilizations but what we view today as a symbol of the engagement and ensuing proposal is merely the product of clever twentieth century advertising.