Birthstone
gemstone that represents a person's month of birth, often worn as jewelry and as pendants
A birthstone is a gemstone that represents a person's birth period, usually the month. Birthstones are often worn as jewelry or a pendant necklace.
History
Western custom
The first-century historian Josephus believed there was a connection between the twelve stones in Aaron's breastplate (signifying the Twelve Tribes of Israel, as described in the Book of Exodus), the twelve months of the year, and the twelve signs of the zodiac. Translations and interpretations of the passage in Exodus regarding the breastplate have varied widely, with Josephus himself giving two different lists for the twelve stones. George Frederick Kunz argues that Josephus saw the breastplate of the Second Temple, not the one described in Exodus. St. Jerome, referencing Josephus, said the Foundation Stones of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:19–20) would be appropriate for Christians.
In the eighth and ninth centuries, religious treatises associating a particular stone with an apostle were written so that "their name would be inscribed on the Foundation Stones, and his virtue." Practice became to keep twelve stones and wear one a month. The custom of wearing a single birthstone is only a few centuries old, though modern authorities differ on dates. Kunz places the custom in eighteenth-century Poland, while the Gemological Institute of America starts it in Germany in the 1560s.
“Birthstone” enters the record as gemstone that represents a person's month of birth, often worn as jewelry and as pendants. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Birthstone, gemstone and represents can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1144700. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Birthstone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.