"Official" Birthstones
I've always wondered at the particularly American penchant for "official" pronouncements, regardless of their origins. I wrote previously about the "official beginning of summer", as an example. In my recent reading, I was happy to discover just how "official" is that list of "official birthstones", particularly since a few years back I saw Hallmark promoting a "non-traditional birthstones" list.
Here's the scoop on "official" birthstones from the appendix in Jewels, by Victoria Finlay, who seems equally baffled by the acceptance of this "official" list. By the way, I ignore it mostly because I don't care that much for diamond, my own "official birthstone".
January — garnet
February — amethyst
March — aquamarine
April — diamond
May — emerald
June — pearl or moonstoneJuly — ruby
August — peridot
September– sapphire
October — opal or tourmaline
November — topaz or citrine
December — turquoise or blue topazThis list was drawn up by the American National Association of Jewelers at a meeting in Kansas City in 1912. These were the stones that jewelers in America most wanted to sell. One of the greatest mysteries about the birthstone system is how widely it was accepted, even if it had no provenance beyond a Missouri boardroom. Until the end of the 1960s ninety-four percent of couples in Japan used the bride's birthstone for their engagement ring. Even today people throughout the world choose gems according to an arbitrary decision made by businesspeople nearly a century ago. There is a move to make tanzanite, discovered in 1967, an alternative December gemstone.
[Victoria Finlay, Jewels : A Secret History (New York : Ballentine Books, 2006), p. 373]