14 of 27

Write now Article Tools

"A Mother's Ring! Is this for me?" Blush. Blush. Grin. Grin. "It's so beautiful. I would never have guessed you guys would've thought to get me one!"

Around my finger went the shiny gold band. More blushing and grinning went my color and expression. My erect fingers spread in a horizontal fashion. My eyes scrutinized the five stones - each representative of one of my offspring.

"This one looks pinkish!" I extrapolated in the midst of verbalizing which stone represented which month. "Rubies are supposed to be red... not pink or maroon looking. They're supposed to be like ruby red lipstick!"

Oh well. What can I say? There I was being "Miss Picky" - ruining the family's surprise - not to mention their shopping for the perfect band and design and stone shape and reasonable price - yada-yada-yada... But what was I supposed to do? The jeweler - at least in my mind - had inserted the wrong stone to represent my daughter's July birth month.

Birthstones also known as natal stones are precious or semiprecious gems that symbolize the time of a person's birth. The tricky thing is that birth periods associated with the gems could revolve around the calendrical months of the year, the ruling planets, or the astrological signs. Consequently, the color of a birthstone in connection with a person's birth depends on which system is utilized. A person choosing a birthstone because her birth month is July would have a different stone associated with her birth period if she chose to use the planetary rather than the calendrical birth stone representation system. Furthermore, gem coloring is not exactly the same for all gems - even if they're genuine.

Another factor involving birthstone coloring entails genuine versus synthetic gemstones. Whereas synthesized stones can be almost as beautiful as real stones and they're cost efficient, the colors they produce may not be as dark or as light as their genuine sisters' coloring.

Calendrical Month Birthstones:

Wearing a particular month's birthstone is not something that is "set in stone". In fact, birthstone wearers often favor a different month's stone over their own. The same is true for birthstone colors. If a stone color doesn't jive with a particular individual, he or she often chooses a substitute. For instance Topaz or its mimic Citrine considered to be golden in color are often substituted for blue Topaz which is actually a colorless or golden treated crystal.

Those born in the month of September have all rainbow colors, except certain

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about All about birthstones?
We want to hear your view. Write now!