What is Your Birthstone?

Just about everyone knows what his or her birthstone is. Why is that? Because people still enjoy the folklore associated with the tradition of the birthstone. They like believing that wearing a birthstone brings them good luck and protects them.

Early civilization as far back as the Assyrians (1400 BC) invested rare and beautiful gemstones with magical properties. Some minerals were thought to contain a force or possess certain values and powers. For instance, amethyst was said to prevent intoxication.

Tradition associates a gem with each sign of the zodiac based on a color system. Color was thought to unleash the power attributed to the stone.

In time, birthstones became associated with calendar months rather than the zodiac. And people began to select birthstones in colors other than the original.

The Roman, Arabic, Jewish, Polish, Russian and Italian lists were all different.

The following list of birthstones, which is the one commonly used today, was adopted in 1912 by the American National Association of Jewelers, which later evolved into the Jewelers of America.

January -- Garnet
February -- Amethyst
March -- Aquamarine
April -- Diamond
May -- Emerald
June -- Moonstone
July -- Ruby
August -- Peridot
September -- Sapphire
October -- Opal or Tourmaline
November -- Yellow Topaz or Citrine
December -- Sky Blue Turquoise or Blue Topaz

Julie Lee is a web designer and founder of Julie's Jewelry Design, LLC. Julie's Jewels is a Texas based retail jewelry company specializing in high quality, affordable jewelry pieces created to be treasured for a lifetime.

BSC hosts arts and humanities summit
Reiten Television KXMB Bismarck, ND - 15 hours ago
BISMARCK, ND - Bismarck State College fills with events Oct. 9-10 for the biennial North Dakota Arts and Humanities Summit, a creative showcase of work ...

Humanities 'key to innovation': minister
ABC Science Online, Australia - Sep 2, 2008
The humanities must be put on an equal footing with the physical and life sciences if Australia is to boost its ability to innovate, says the federal ...

Dr. David Heckel new dean of Pfeiffer's School of Humanities
Salisbury Post, NC - Sep 4, 2008
MISENHEIMER — Pfeiffer University has established the new School of Humanities, which will encompass undergraduate programs including liberal and fine arts ...

UR Images: An Idiot's Guide to Humanities
Saipan Tribune, Micronesia - Sep 4, 2008
It is not a question of whether one agrees with this description of humanity. The question is what myth do you go by, and for teachers, ...

RSC 2008 Medal and Award Recipients
MarketWatch - 1 hour ago
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, Sep 05, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada, has offered medals and awards to ...

RSC 2008 New Fellows: Extending Excellence
MarketWatch - 1 hour ago
Election to RSC is the highest honour a scholar can achieve in the Arts, Humanities and Sciences. While continuing to pursue its original mandate to promote ...

Funding boost for social sciences
The Age, Australia - Sep 2, 2008
The federal government will expand its international science linkages program to encourage greater research in the humanities and social sciences. ...
Government gives more funding for international research, but no ... SmartCompany.com.au
Uni fellowships to woo overseas talent The Australian
all 8 news articles

Dartmouth News
Dartmouth appoints first chair of Digital Humanities
Dartmouth News, NH - Sep 2, 2008
I am so pleased that she has arrived and I look forward to working with Mary and the other faculty involved in the digital humanities as they shape this ...

Summer Humn. comes alive inthe culture-rich city of Prague
Lamron, NY - Sep 4, 2008
Of all the mandated courses at Geneseo, the most dreaded is often Humanities: an eight-credit two-class series that tries to cover centuries of western ...

Canada's Government Invests in Top Social Sciences and Humanities ...
MarketWatch - Aug 28, 2008
"We can have all the robust technologies in the world, but we need the social sciences and humanities to know how to harness them and interpret them from a ...

Wind Chimes and more...

Windchimes for great gifts!

She Wrote the Book on Fakin It