Birthstone by month
A gem for every month, a tradition reaching back to antiquity.
Where the list of twelve comes from
The oldest source is Aaron's breastplate, described in the book of Exodus: twelve stones set on a chestpiece, one per tribe of Israel. Ancient translators rendered the Hebrew names with gems of their own day, often by guesswork, so nobody knows for certain which stones the text meant.
Linking those twelve stones to the twelve months appears with Flavius Josephus in the first century, then with Saint Jerome. For centuries a wealthy collector owned all twelve and wore the one for the current month; wearing only your own is a far more recent habit.
The list we know today dates from 1912: the American national association of jewellers fixed it to harmonise a trade where every city had its own version. It has been revised since, notably in 1952 and 2002. So it is a commercial list resting on an ancient tradition, which takes away neither the charm nor the history, but is worth knowing.
What tradition attaches to each month
January's garnet was the traveller's stone, set at the prow of ships. February's amethyst was meant to guard against drunkenness, its Greek name meaning literally « not intoxicated ». March's aquamarine belonged to sailors, May's emerald to Venus, July's ruby to warriors.
August's peridot, long mined on the single island of Zabargad in the Red Sea, was so rare that Crusaders mistook it for emerald for centuries; several « emeralds » in church treasuries are peridots. October's opal carried a reputation for bad luck born of a Walter Scott novel in 1829, and the opal trade felt it for fifty years.
These stories say what the centuries projected onto stones, not what stones do. Lapidem passes them on as cultural heritage, never as a promise.
Choosing, giving, wearing
A birthstone makes a gift that justifies itself, which is rare. Three cautions all the same. Hardness first: October's opal and June's pearl are soft and wear badly in an everyday ring, a pendant suits them better. Quality next: a hundred-euro ruby is not a jeweller's ruby, it is a heavily treated corundum, and the seller should say so.
The alternative stone last: several months have two official stones, precisely because one of them costs too much for a gift. December has three, from turquoise to tanzanite. Nothing obliges you to take the dearest.
And if the month's stone does not appeal to you, do not insist: wearing a stone on the finger has always been a matter of taste, never of rule.