When admiring all of the beautiful pieces in our store, I got to thinking about stones and the various meanings behind them. Where did the idea of a birthstone come from? Why do we have a particular one assigned to each month? After some digging, I learned that the concept of birthstones originated from the biblical breastplate of Aaron. This breastplate contained 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel.
Over the centuries these 12 stones became associated with the 12 months of the calendar year and the 12 astrological signs by 1st and 5th century scholars. Initially people owned all 12 stones and wore them to harness the power of the month that they represented. During the 18th century it became popular in Germany and Poland to wear the corresponding stone for your month of birth. It wasn’t until 1912 that the stones became standardized by the American National Retail Jewelers Association (now the Jewelers of America) to become the commercial list we know today.
