Happy New Year! With a new year comes a new month, and this month’s beautiful birthstone is GARNET. Typically a red/brown color, garnet can be found in ANY color except for blue. Personally, one of my favorite garnet hues is a lovely magenta color known as Rhodolite garnet (see picture at the end of the blog post.) Found in abundance in Africa, garnet is also harvested in North and South America as well as in various European countries.
Derived from the Latin word for pomegranite, garnet has been used for centuries for its beauty but also for its supposed “lethal” nature. North American Indians used red garnets as arrowheads, believing that they would seek blood and inflict a deadlier wound, while as recently as 1892 the Hunzas of Kasmir used garnets as bullets to fight the British believing that garnets were deadlier than lead.
Also used frequently by early Christians to symbolize Christ’s sacrifice, and even earlier as a symbol by one of the 12 tribes of Israel, the garnet’s roots in history are as deep as any gemstone. A beautiful stone to highlight during these recently SNOWY, WHITE days of another northeastern US winter! Happy birthday to all garnet babies out there!!
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