Alexandrite
In 1952, the Jewelers of America organization added Alexandrite as the birthstone for the month of June.
The variety of chrysoberyl with a cat’s eye effect is known as a Cymophane. The word cimófana comes from two Greek words that mean “wave” and “to appear”, making reference to its cat’s eye effect. The cat’s eye is related to a moon node in Vedic astrology.
The name chrysoberyl has a Greek origin and means “golden beryl”.
The Alexandrite is the chrysoberyl variety that shows a change in colour depending on the source of illumination it is viewed under (green in white light, and red in yellow light). It was discovered in 1831 in an emerald mining region in the Ural Mountains. It is called Alexandrite because it was discovered the same day that Russian Tsar Alexander II came of age. For this reason, and in his honour, it received the name “Alexandrite”.
Pearls
Pearls are the birthstones that correspond to the month of June. They are given as a gift to those celebrating their 3rd and 30th wedding anniversaries.
In Vedic astrology, the Pearl is related to the Moon.
Pearls are associated with purity, chastity, stability in marriage, etc.
The name comes from the Greek word margaron, which means daughter of the sea, in reference to its origin. The Latin translation of margaron is margarita (margaret).
The pearl was fashionable in both ancient Greece and in Roman times. Roman women wore earrings made with pearls in elongated shapes (pear-shaped). From there, the name went from margarita to perula, in reference to this shape. Over time, the name changed and the gem became known as a pearl.
Pearls are a miracle of nature, rare treasures that come from the bottom of the sea and have been adorning us for millennia.
In India, pearls were associated with religious beliefs and both men and women wore them. Alexander the Great spread the use of pearls in ancient Greece, where they were in fashion until the fall of the Roman Empire, when they were no longer used. During the Renaissance (15 – 17th centuries) the interest in the pearls appeared once again. At the end of the 19th – early 20th century, there was a great demand for pearls, leading to the overexploitation of natural pearl banks. This resulted in the collapse of the “proliferation” of the natural pearl and coincided with the appearance of the cultured pearl on the market (1910-1920).
The Pearl is a gem of organic animal origin. Pearls are created through a biological process that occurs as a defensive reaction of a mollusk (of lamellibranch or bivalve and gastropods classes), which isolates any foreign body that is introduced into their tissues (sand grain, fragments of shell, larvae, etc.).
