The diamond engagement band has become the standard betrothal gift in American society. It is now considered almost to be a given that if two people are to be married, that there will be the presentation of a diamond engagement band from the groom-to-be to the bride-to-be. This tradition has become almost as deeply entrenched in the American psyche as the gold wedding ring. Like all traditions, this offering of a diamond engagement band had to have had an origin somewhere in the past. So what is the reason for the American tradition of the diamond engagement band?
The recent popularity of the diamond engagement band can be traced back to the post war years of WWII America. The diamond industry had been lagging due to the need for money and material to go to the war effort. Diamond, as the hardest natural substance on earth, has many industrial uses, so it was not a priority for most people to procure a diamond engagement band when the US government was insisting on everyone doing their part for the sake of victory in the war.
Once the war was over, however, the diamond industry felt that there needed to be a way to re-introduce the American public to the idea of utilizing diamond for the sake of an engagement band. The diamond engagement band had been utilized prior to this time period, but its use as a betrothal gift amongst the middle classes had suffered during the years of WWI and WWII. Noting the new-found boom of the post WWII years, the diamond industry began a new campaign to demonstrate the appeal of the diamond and the diamond engagement band in terms of both its aesthetic appeal and its desirability as a symbolic token of eternal love.
The first appeal of the diamond and the diamond engagement band, its aesthetic appeal, was an idea that was fairly easy to introduce to the general American public. The clear, scintillating, crystalline beauty of the diamond made it an ideal stone for use in an engagement band. By simply having celebrities pose for photo shoots wearing diamond bands, the public could see the simple, yet elegant beauty that is to be found in a diamond.
The symbolic appeal of diamond and the diamond engagement band was a slightly more difficult task in bringing to bear on the American public. However, with the brilliant slogan of “A diamond is forever,” the diamond industry was able to sum up in a phrase the appeal of the diamond for use in the engagement band. The fact that a diamond takes so long to form, lasts as long as anything else in the world, is the hardest substance known and retains its purity with simple cleaning made it the ideal symbol for love and the eternal hopes of a young couple hoping for the best for their future together.
The diamond engagement band tradition did not originate in the post war years in the US, but it was this period that solidified the place of the diamond engagement band as the engagement band of choice for most Americans. The diamond engagement band can be traced back to 1477 with the presentation of a diamond engagement band to Mary of Burgundy by Archduke Maximilian I of Austria, but while this was a seed of the origins of the tradition, it was truly the post war years of the US that made the diamond engagement band so popular today. With this being the case, who knows what could be added to the tradition over the next centuries.
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