The History of the birthstone is now well documented. The Birthstone List showing gemstones for different months put out by the American National Association of Jewelers is also now widely accepted. However,one has a lot of choice in the selection of Birthstone gems and Birthstone Jewelry with the apt birthstone gem stones.
The breastplate of Aaron, the origin of the birthstone list, has birthstone gemstones corresponding to the zodiac signs and not calendar months. In fact, the present calendar months system was not known at the time of the exodus. So you can choose your birthstone based on the calendar month or the zodiac sign under which you were born. This is the birthstone list of gemstones corresponding to zodiac signs.The choice of birthstone gems for each zodiac sign is again open to interpretation. E.g., in the olden days, both rubies and garnets were classified as carbuncles. Moreover, all gemstones were not easily available all over the world. So some gem scholars give more importance to the color of the gemstone used in the breast plate of Aaron, rather than the name. Our Birthstone Colors Chart will give you a match of the color corresponding to each month and the choice of gemstones available for each color. To get information about an individual birthstone click on the calendar month or zodiac sign of your choice.
The history of the use of birthstones is traced back to the breast plate of the high priest of canaan from the biblical story of the exodus.According to the bible, God promised Abraham, the first Jew, a separate homeland for Israelites, called the land of canaan. The promise was delivered upon during the time of Moses. Moses led the Israelites from Egypt towards the promised land of Canaan thru the Exodus. The exodus was undertaken by twelve tribes. The kingdom of Israel was established and the Israelites were given a high priest to guide them spiritually. The high priest, Cohen Gadol, had a breast plate with twelve jewels(birthstones), which were
engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Crystalline Stones, or Jewels, were considered to have been chipped from the throne of the supreme being, and were considered to contain the souls of men. So the Stones ( Jewels ) on the breastplate were according to the children of Israel. Each tribe was assigned a sign of the zodiac as per the Egyptian calendar, and so, each jewel was correlated to a zodiac month. Over a period of time, depending on local availability of gems, and interpretation of names, variations of the list were used in different parts. After the Julian Calendar system was introduced, the birthstones list for the zodiac months was transposed to the corresponding calendar months. In 1912, the American National Jewelers Association released a “Modern” list of birthstones for calendar months, which is now widely accepted.