Blue to green in color, turquoise is a semi-translucent to opaque gem that frequently has matrix veins (remains of the rock it formed in) running through it. For millennia, people have treasured the birthstone for December. It was used to embellish the pharaohs and other ancient Egyptian kings. It was sculpted by Chinese artists more than 3,000 years ago.
The birthstone of turquoise was believed to have numerous positive properties, such as ensuring health and fortune. It was thought, starting in the 13th century, that it would shatter into numerous pieces as tragedy approached and would shield the wearer from falling (particularly off horses). According to Hindu mystics, seeing a turquoise after viewing the new moon guaranteed incredible fortune.
Native Americans also placed a high value on this birthstone of turquoise. The Apache believed that by traveling to the end of a rainbow, one may find turquoise. Additionally, they thought that securing the birthstone for December to a bow or gun improved one’s marksmanship. The Hopi believed that lizards crawling across the earth generated the jewel, whereas the Pueblo insisted that turquoise’s color came from the sky.
In This Article...
Which three stones are December’s birthstones?
Due to its alluring bluish colour, many individuals adore birthstones for the month of December. Turquoise, blue zircon, and tanzanite are the three gemstones for December, and they all feature lovely blue sparkles instead of the conventional Christmas colors of red and green.
Are there two birthstones for December?
Zircon, Tanzanite, and turquoise are the three gemstones that are associated with December birthdays. These gemstones all have distinctive blue tones, making them ideal December birthstones for Minnesota’s chilly winters. Zircon comes in a range of hues, but blue is by far the most popular.
Are there four birthstones for December?
December babies have the good fortune to have four recognized birthstones: tanzanite, turquoise, zircon, and blue topaz. All of these gems make lovely choices for fine jewelry, giving December infants a wide range of alternatives in terms of styles and pricing points.
What shade does December have?
Topaz, the birthstone for December. Blue is the birthstone for December. The traditional birthstone for December is the blue zircon, but there are a number of gemstones that are also said to be symbolic of the month, such as turquoise, blue topaz, and tanzanite.
What birthstone stone is the rarest?
All gemstones, especially expensive gemstones, are thought to be relatively rare, yet some birthstones are more common than others. Although some highly expensive stones are not that rare, and vice versa, price tags can be deceiving when it comes to rarity. For instance, although expensive, April’s diamond is less rare than rubies, emeralds, and alexandrite. Speaking of alexandrite, it is now the most expensive and rarest gemstone on the list of birthstones. Additionally extremely rare, black opals are.
An intriguing technique to select jewelry is by birthstone. They enable people to investigate jewels that they might otherwise avoid. However, birthstones are not always what people think they are, so make sure you are buying birthstone jewelry for the right reasons while making your selection.
What birthstone is most typical for December?
Zircon comes in a variety of hues, but blue is the most common because it is the birthstone for the month of December.
Due to its durability, zircon is ideal for everyday wear as necklaces, rings, earrings, and other accessories. Jewelers advise wearing zircon as a ring in a protective setting, just like they do with tanzanite. This is so because rings get greater use and abuse than necklaces and earrings do.
Care and Cleaning
Zircon has a Mohs hardness between 6.5 and 7.5 and is frequently heated to produce different blue and colorless colors. Although heat and light can cause some gemstones to change back to their natural color, zircon is stable under these conditions.
The December birthstone can scratch, just like turquoise and tanzanite, so only a soft brush or warm, soapy water should be used to clean it.
Is blue topaz the birthstone for December?
The most common color of topaz and the birthstone for December, blue topaz represents sincerity, intense emotional attachment, and emotional clarity. The fourth anniversary present idea is blue topaz, the birthstone for December. Because blue topaz is such a lovely stone, it makes everyone on your list feel radiant, even if you are stuck for a present idea to offer a friend or loved one or simply run out of ideas. We have a wide selection of blue topaz jewelry at Joseph’s Jewelry to suit every taste and price range.
What birthstone falls on December 30th?
You can choose between turquoise, zircon, or tanzanite as your birthstone if you were born in December. The soft gemstone turquoise, which is used in jewelry and ornamentation, has a long history that dates back to antiquity. Zircons are a less popular gemstone, but they produce the most beautiful jewelry. Only in Tanzania can you find tanzanite, a stunning pure blue-violet crystal.
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December birthstone: turquoise
Turquoise is copper aluminum phosphate to chemists and geologists. It is created when rainwater or melted snow percolates through copper porphyry deposits. An acidic solution is created when water reacts with the copper sulfides in the ore. When the aluminum and potassium in the rocks react with the copper-carrying acidic water, turquoise precipitates into the cracks. In dry regions, turquoise can be found in sedimentary rock and weathered volcanic rock.
With a Mohs scale hardness rating of five to six, turquoise is a moderately delicate gemstone. Turquoise can be lightly scratched or broken. This porous opaque stone is easily stained by oil and paints. When some of its water content is lost, it also changes color.
The best-looking stones are compact, hard, and relatively non-porous because they may be finely polished.
Oil, paraffin, liquid plastic, or water glass are applied to softer, more porous kinds to increase their endurance and color.
Iron gives turquoise a more greenish tone, whereas copper gives it a sky-blue hue. An deep sky-blue hue, akin to the color of a robin’s egg, characterizes the most valuable kind of turquoise. The impurities from the surrounding rock matrix that are frequently seen as ochre and brown-black veins in gemstones.
Turquoise facts
Iran is known for its sky-blue stones from Neyshabur and produces some of the greatest turquoise in the world. Over 5,000 years ago, humans in Egypt began mining turquoise in the Sinai Peninsula. Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada are just a few of the American Southwest states where turquoise may be found. Afghanistan, Australia, China, India, Tibet, Mexico, and Brazil are some places where this stone can be found.
The French phrase pierre turquoise, which translates to “Turkish stone,” is where the word turquoise first appeared. This is due to the fact that Venetian traders shipped the diamond to Europe after buying it from Turkish traders.
The governing classes of ancient civilizations in Africa, Asia, and the Americas wore turquoise jewelry. In ancient Iraq, beads from the late 6th millennium BCE have been discovered. In the tomb of Zer, a pharaoh who ruled Egypt around 3000 BCE, a woman had turquoise bracelets on her arm. In the tomb of a nobleman in central China, there found a 3,700-year-old dragon artifact from the Xia Dynasty fashioned of more than 2,000 pieces of turquoise.
Turquoise in the Americas
In the American Southwest, turquoise has a long history. For several thousand years, Native Americans have used this gemstone to make jewelry and ornaments. Particularly well-known for their turquoise jewelry are the Apache, Navajo, Pueblo, and Zuni tribes.
Turquoise is referred to as “sky stone” in Zuni. Pueblo dancers wear turquoise to promote rain during the summer agricultural season. Turquoise is used in significant rites of passage by the Navajo, who relate it to health and protection. The Apache, however, thought that turquoise was located at the end of a rainbow and that having turquoise on a bow or pistol guaranteed accurate shooting.
Pre-Columbian societies in Mexico, Central America, and South America all used turquoise. Ancient cultures in Peru produced tiny items like beads, figurines, and artifacts with turquoise inlays. Turquoise was a common adornment material for the Aztecs. It also served crucial ceremonial and religious purposes. A high priest who participated in human sacrifice, for instance, wore a turquoise pendant that hung from his lower lip. Complex turquoise mosaics, such as the turquoise mosaic mask used at a king’s burial, were a famous Aztec art form.
Turquoise lore
Turquoise is seen as a love charm by certain individuals. It is intended to represent a promise of love when given as a gift. Shakespeare employed this knowledge in “The Venetian Merchant. In it, Leah sent Shylock a turquoise ring when he was single in the hopes that it would capture his heart and prompt him to propose to her.
Turquoise is also linked to a lot of other superstitions. An Arabian literature from the eleventh century stated, “When the air is clear, the turquoise sparkles; when the air is murky, it turns pale. They also thought that the weather affected its color. People thought it would shield its wearer from harm if he fell off a horse in the 13th century.
According to The Curious Lore of Precious Stones by George Frederick Kunz, diamonds and turquoise are said to lose their magical properties when sold.
The spirit that inhabited the stone was believed to object to the idea of being purchased and sold and was expected to leave, leaving it to be reduced to a meaningless piece of material. However, the spirit was very than prepared to transfer its favor from one owner to another if the diamond (or turquoise) was given as a promise of love or friendship.
There were also bogus health claims regarding turquoise. People used to think that when a stone’s user was sick, the stone changed color. Some claimed it was a successful remedy for the pain caused by evil spirits and scorpion bites. The eyes are said to get stronger just by glancing at turquoise.
December birthstone: zircon
A mineral called zircon is created from the elements zirconium and silicon (zirconium silicate). Most igneous rock contains tiny crystals, usually only a few millimeters in size. Zircon is tough enough to withstand the geological processes that form metamorphic and sedimentary rock, with a Mohs scale hardness of 7.5. Large zircon crystals are uncommon, though. They are mostly generated in carbonatites and pegmatites, two types of coarse-grained igneous rock. But the majority of zircons are found in alluvial and beach deposits because gem-bearing rocks have weathered.
The Arabic word zarquin, which means red, may have inspired the name zircon. Or possibly from the Persian word zargus, which means golden.
Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka are significant suppliers of zircon with gemstone-quality. The gemstones are also found in Canada, Australia, France, Norway, and Myanmar.
Colors of zircon
Forces have changed the chemical makeup and color of zirconium silicate crystals throughout long geologic epochs. Radiation emitted by uranium and thorium inclusions modifies the original crystal structure. A glass-like substance with hues ranging from red to brown, orange, and yellow is created. The most uncommon natural color is green. The majority of gemstones have been heated since the 1920s in order to enhance their colors. In addition to blue and yellow stones, this results in colorless zircons.
An intriguing tale about the origin of blue stones is told in “Gems and Crystals by Anna S. Sofianides and George E. Harlow:
A brand-new blue gemstone debuted on the market in the 1920s. It was incredibly brilliant and became popular right away.
The creation of the blue zircon
Zircons, which are typically brown to green but had never before been blue, turned out to be the gems. The renowned Tiffany gemologist George F. Kunz immediately suspected fraud since remarkable stones were not only widely available but also in great supply. Upon Kunz’s request, a colleague conducted research while traveling to Siam, Thailand, and discovered that a significant amount of unsightly brown zircon had prompted local businesspeople to try with color enhancement. The dull substance was heated in an oxygen-free chamber to create “new blue stones,” which suppliers sent to retailers all around the world. The market merely accepted the information even after becoming aware of the fraud, and the demand for the new stones remained unabated.
Blue stones are a certain preference among zircon buyers. Colors like red and green are also beneficial. With a blazing fire that is almost as brilliant as the real thing, colorless zircons are outstanding imitations of diamonds, but only in appearance. Zircon can be fragile, thus cutting requires extreme caution. Due to intrinsic tensions in the crystal brought on by radiation damage and heat treatment, it breaks with a well-placed knock. However, its breathtaking beauty keeps it in high demand. Clarity and the lack of obvious inclusions are further characteristics that influence gemstone pricing.
Zircon lore
One of the stones of the Hindu Kalpa Tree, which symbolized the tree’s leaves, was green zircon. This tree served as a metaphorical sacrifice to the gods. Hindu poets of the 19th century spoke of it as a shining gem among sapphires, diamonds, and topaz in a dazzling group of priceless stones.
Ancient Arabs loved the reddish-brown and orange-red hyacinth and jacinth forms of zircon; they are even referenced in the well-known “Arabian Nights.”
Zircon gained popularity in the 14th century as a defense against the Black Death, a terrible plague that wiped off a fourth of Europe’s population. The stone was thought to have medicinal properties, including the ability to aid with digestion, induce sleep, and counteract poison.
December birthstone: tanzanite
A peculiar variation of the mineral zoisite is tanzanite (calcium aluminium hydroxyl sorosilicate). Vanadium is found in zoisite crystals, which gives them their blue and violet hues. In a location that would one day become Mount Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania, this gemstone formed 585 million years ago under conditions of tremendous heat and active plate tectonics.
Tanzanite is now exclusively found in the Merelani Hills, which are close to Mount Kilimanjaro.
Colors from different angles
Tanzanite flashes these hues when viewed from different angles, appearing in its natural state as brown, yellowish green, blue, and violet. Pleochroism is a phenomena where several hues can be seen depending on how light strikes the gemstone.
Another factor to consider is the type of illumination. Tanzanite appears more blue in fluorescent lighting and more violet in incandescent lighting.
To eliminate the natural tanzanite’s brownish hue, heat treatments were commonly applied to crystals used in jewelry. Gems that are more vividly blue and violet are the end product. A green gem with secondary blue and violet colors can occasionally result from heating stones. Cutters can alter the general color of cut gems by how they make them.
Tanzanite’s recent history
The history of tanzanite began in 1967, as opposed to the hundreds or even thousands of years that most birthstones have had. In the Merelani Hills in northern Tanzania, a Masai tribesman discovered remarkable clear violet-blue crystals. He alerted a local prospector and tailor named Manuel d’Souza, who submitted the first of several mining claims after discovering the diamonds.
D’Souza at first thought they were sapphires. However, nobody was certain. Geologists at the Gemological Institute of America received the stones and determined that they were an unusual variety of zoisite.
Tiffany & Company, a renowned jeweler, expressed interest in the stone. They started a marketing campaign in 1968. They changed the name of blue zoisite to tanzanite in honor of the country of origin in order to increase consumer interest in the jewels. The American Gem Trade Association chose tanzanite to join turquoise and zircon as the birthstones for December in 2002.
Are there two birthstones for each month?
Although each month has a single birthstone traditionally, certain months have numerous birthstones. This fact does cause some confusion, but the variety of possibilities for some months was developed to give customers a choice of less expensive selections in addition to the more typical, pricey stones.