Engagement

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Engagement

:For the telephone engaged tone, see Busy signal
Busy signal

A busy signal in telephony is an audible or visual Signalling to the calling party that indicates failure to complete the requested connection of that particular telephone call....
.

An engagement is a promise to marry

Marriage

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The engagement period

The concept of an engagement period may have begun in 1215 at the Fourth Lateran Council, headed by Pope Innocent III

Pope Innocent III

Pope Innocent III was born in either 1160 or 1161, and died on July 16, 1216 at Perugia. He was born with the name Lotario de Conti, and he was pope from January 8, 1198 until his death....
, which decreed that "marriages are to be ... announced publicly in the churches by the priests during a suitable and fixed time, so that if legitimate impediments

Canonical impediment

In the Canon law of the Catholic Church, a canonical impediment is a legal obstacle that prevents a sacraments of the Catholic Church from being performed validly and/or licitly....
exist, they may be made known." Such a formal church announcement of the intent to marry is known as banns. In some jurisdictions, reading the banns may be part of one type of legal marriage.

Engagement rituals vary widely by culture. In in the Western provinces of India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, a gosling

Gosling

Gosling might refer to:*A young goose.*Gosling .*Henry Gosling Prize, awarded to young European artists.*Gosling Emacs, an Emacs implementation....
is the traditional betrothal gift. In twelfth century China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, the woman was expected to produce a suitable gift for the man within one week of the proposal, or the wedding could be invalidated. In the late nineteenth century, Cajun

Cajun

Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles and peoples of other ethnicities with whom the Acadians eventually intermarried on the semitropical frontier....
betrothals were initiated when the man placed a small piece of ice on the foot of his beloved.

The modern Western form of the practice of giving or exchanging engagement ring

Engagement ring

In Western tradition, an engagement ring is a jewelry ring worn by a woman indicating her engagement to be marriage. In some countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, it is worn on the left-hand ring finger, while in other countries, such as Poland and Ukraine, it is customary for the ring to be worn on the right-hand....
s is traditionally thought to have begun in 1477 when Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I of Habsburg was Holy Roman Empire from 1508 until his death, but had ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his reign, from circa 1483....
, gave Mary of Burgundy

Mary of Burgundy

Mary, called Mary the Rich , was suo jure Duke of Burgundy from 1477 – 1482. As the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, she was the heiress to the vast Burgundian domains in France and the Low Countries upon her father's death in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477....
a diamond

Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
ring

Ring (finger)

A finger ring is a band worn as a type of ornamental jewellery around a finger; it is the most common current meaning of the word wiktionary:ring....
as an engagement present.

Engagement rings

Customs for engagement rings vary according to time, place, and culture. An engagement ring has historically been uncommon, and when such a gift was given, it was separate from the wedding ring. Romantic rings from the time of the Roman Empire and from as far back as 4 AD often resemble the Celt

Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
ic Claddagh

Claddagh Ring

The Claddagh ring is a traditional Ireland ring given in friendship ring or worn as a wedding ring. The design and customs associated with it originated in the Irish fishing village of Claddagh, located just outside the old walls of the city of Galway....
symbol (two hands clasping a heart) and so it is thought that this was used as some symbol of love and commitment between two people.

In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
, Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, and many other countries, an engagement ring

Engagement ring

In Western tradition, an engagement ring is a jewelry ring worn by a woman indicating her engagement to be marriage. In some countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, it is worn on the left-hand ring finger, while in other countries, such as Poland and Ukraine, it is customary for the ring to be worn on the right-hand....
is worn on the fourth finger of the left hand. This tradition

Tradition

The word tradition comes from the Latin traditionem, acc. of traditio which means "handing over, passing on", and is used in a number of ways in the English language:...
is thought to be from the Romans

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, who believed this finger to be the beginning of the vena amoris
Vena amoris

Vena amoris is a Latin name meaning, literally, "vein of love". Traditional belief established that this vein ran directly from the heart to the ring finger of the left hand....
("vein of love"), the vein that leads to the heart. The custom in Continental Europe

Continental Europe

Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands and, at times, peninsulas....
and other countries is to wear it on the right hand.

In some other countries from South America, like in Argentina, man and woman use each one ring, and these are generally very similar to the wedding rings, with the difference that they are made of silver instead of gold. In Norway, both men and women wear an engagement ring. In Brazil they are always made of gold, and there is no tradition for the engagement ring. Both men and women wear the wedding band on their right hand while engaged, and after they marry, they shift the rings to their left hands.

In the modern era, some women's wedding rings are made into two pieces. One part is given to her to wear as an engagement ring when she accepts the marriage proposal, and the other during the wedding ceremony. When worn together, the two rings look like one piece of jewellery.

Engagement parties

Some engagements are announced at an engagement party, traditionally hosted by the bride's parents. These parties are given in the family's usual style of entertainment. Traditionally, engagement parties were normal parties at which a surprise announcement of the engagement was made by the father of the bride to his guests. Therefore, it is not a traditional gift-giving occasion, as none of the guests were supposed to be aware of the engagement until after their arrival.

In modern times, engagement parties often celebrate a previously publicized engagement. Whether presents are given at these engagement parties varies from culture to culture.

Many couples do not have an engagement party, and instead use other ways to inform their friends of the upcoming nuptials.

Related terms

Fiancé(e)

A man who is engaged to be married is called his partner's fiancé; a woman similarly engaged is called her partner's fiancée. These words are pronounced identically in English; the separate feminine form exists because of the inflection

Inflection

In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as grammatical tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, grammatical aspect, grammatical person, grammatical number, grammatical gender, grammatical case....
al morphology

Morphology (linguistics)

Morphology is the identification, analysis and description of structure of words . While words are generally accepted as being the smallest units of syntax, it is clear that in most languages, words can be related to other words by rules....
of grammatical gender

Grammatical gender

In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, where the term originated.

Proposal

The classic proposal position is 'down on one knee' shown in the picture to the right. Engagement is most often initiated by a proposal of marriage, or simply a proposal. The proposal often has a ritual quality, involving the presentation of the engagement ring and a formalized asking of a question such as "Will you marry me?"

Betrothal

Engagement is similar to betrothal

Betrothal

Betrothal is a formal state of engagement to be marriage.Historically betrothal was a formal contract, blessed or officiated by a religious authority....
, and the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. However, betrothal often refers to agreements involving not only the couple but their families; the concept sometimes has a connotation of arranged marriage

Arranged marriage

Arranged marriage is a marriage arranged by someone other than the couple getting wedded, curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world, including Europe....
. Furthermore, betrothals can be broken, but often have binding legal implications lacking in engagements.

Breach of promise

In some jurisdictions, until the 20th century, it was possible for a woman (but almost never a man), to sue if an engagement was broken, based on denial of the chance to "establish herself" and possible damage to her reputation.