We may be more than a week into the month, but don’t worry – we haven’t forgotten about all of you March babies out there! The short month in February may have held us up a bit, but now we’re in a March state of mind, and if you were born this month it’s time to celebrate Birkat Elyon-style.
Sure, the weather might be as unpredictable as the sunrise and sunset times, but March has plenty to offer – not the least of which is you! So let’s hear it for the month of spring breaks, St. Patrick’s Day and the start of spring! And if that’s not enough, this month is also host to Employee Appreciation Day, I Want You to Be Happy Day, Peanut Butter Lovers’ Day and (who could forget) If Pets Had Thumbs Day. That last one is an actual day. We can’t make this stuff up.
Nor can we make up the fact that your birthday is the most special event of all in March. To celebrate it you get two birthstones: aquamarine and bloodstone.
Aquamarine
As is common with many precious and semi-precious gemstones, the aquamarine – despite also being the name of a single color in addition to a gem – comes in a variety of colors ranging from very deep blues to lighter bluish green hues. Gemologists attribute these beautiful colors to trace amounts of iron found inside the beryl crystal. The rarest and most expensive aquamarines are the deepest of deep blues, but only if they gained that color naturally. Beware of blue aquamarines that were originally yellow beryl stones synthetically heated up to change their color to blue.
The name comes from the Latin words aqua (water) and marina (sea). Long ago it was thought that wearing these gemstones would protect sailors by securing them a safe voyage at sea. Some still hold the belief that its tranquil colors had the ability to sooth tempers and keep its wearers levelheaded and relaxed.
Jokingly referred to by some as “the poor man’s diamond,” aquamarines are mostly found in mines in Pakistan, Zambia, Mozambique, Madagascar and Nigeria. Its stunning color reminds those whose eyes it catches of blue skies or seas, and it has always been a symbol of youth, health, fidelity and hope. That’s probably why it’s so frequently used in spring accessories, which you can read all about in our last blog post. Additionally, the stones’ soothing nature is said to help married couples, so aquamarine jewelry is a fantastic anniversary gift.
Believed to have originated from stones that washed ashore from the ocean’s depths, aquamarines were considered by the ancient Romans to be the sacred stones of Neptune, the god of the sea. That’s most likely why they became associated with protecting sailors on nautical journeys. The ancients also believed it would protect one from sea monsters. You gotta’ watch for those, of course.
Bloodstone
Aquamarine may be the “traditional” birthstone choice for March, but it’s not the only one. Bloodstones, or “heliotropes,” are a form of quartz, and are this month’s other birthstone. Known scientifically as “cryptocrystalline quartz” (let’s just stick with bloodstone, OK?), the gems naturally exist as masses of diminutive quartz crystals that shaped into large lumps with no visible crystal form. Nevertheless, every component of crystals that these stones are comprised from is itself a genuine crystal. Some forms of these stones are known as chalcedony, but when they appear green with small flecks of reddish iron oxide they’re classified as bloodstones.
Australia, India and Brazil are the top sources for the stones. There they’re mostly found as pebbles sitting in riverbeds or embedded into rocks.
Way back in the day (we’re talking as much as 2,800 years ago here), the bloodstone was prized by the Babylonians for the mystical healing powers they thought it possessed. In particular, it was believed that wearing the stones would help with blood disorders. By the time the Middle Ages came rolling around, the healing myth made a comeback, as people tried to use them to stop nosebleeds. Its supposed holistic didn’t end there, though. Nope, it was also thought that when crushed into a fine powder and mixed with honey and egg whites, the bloodstone could cure tumors and stop hemorrhages.
Cubic Zirconia Jewelry
Already have plenty of jewelry with your birthstone set in it? Another fun and inexpensive way to round out your jewelry collection is to add some cubic zirconia (CZ) jewelry to it. Not just any CZ jewelry, though. Birkat Elyon’s CZ jewelry collection is made up of only the absolute finest Russian Formula (the highest grade available) cubic zirconia.
Does it really matter what type of CZ jewelry you buy? It certainly does. There are five readily available types of CZ on the market, and only the Russian Formula is able to catch the light so exquisitely that even experienced gemologists often have a hard time identifying them as “fake” diamonds. Don’t worry – we won’t tell if you won’t.