The birthstone for August is called a peridot which has two different ways of pronouncing it correctly. The first way is pronounced, PEAR-A-DOE and the second is PEAR-A-DOT..
Peridots are especially sentimental to wearers of this gemstone because it’s only found in four known places: Burma, China, Pakistan and America. Besides only the limited locations in which you can discover a peridot, another reason these gems are so special is for all of the fascinating facts that surround it
Take its colouring for example: Its light green colour can often confuse people into thinking it’s a light green emerald; especially when the peridot is often called an evening emerald. These birthstones, however, are nothing alike considering that each gem comes from two entirely different types of elemental compounds!
To help remember the difference, the colour of peridots are usually in reference to foods such as limes, kiwis and olives, whereas, emeralds are very rich in colour and can only be described as an emerald colour. Keep reading to see how these little beauties get their lime colouring!
Origins
Volcanic formation
Every gemstone carries its own story to tell and the peridot birthstone isn’t any different. The peridot carries so much history with it that it can still be found in ancient Egyption jewellery artefacts from the early 2nd millennium B.C.!
Coming from deep, down under the surface of the earth, peridots are normally found in very small increments so getting one bigger than a 3carat stone is very rare. It takes an extreme amount of heat and pressure from volcanoes that form an igneous rock when the magma cools down.
That’s a pretty typical answer of how many gems are formed but with the ever-fascinating peridot, there’s an even more exciting way that they can also be formed: Meteors. That’s right! These aliens from outer space travel down to earth inside of a stony-iron meteorite called a pallasite.
Now, this explains the rock formation the peridot but doesn’t explain how this birthstone gets its green appearance. To understand the colouring, you have to first understand its transformation process.
Meteor formation
Olivine is the silicate mineral rock that’s formed by volcanoes and meteors and is very rich in magnesium and iron. It’s when this olivine crystallises that it then turns into the peridot gemstone.
Because olivine has an extremely large melting point, it takes a very, very long time to form. The vividness of the colouring that occurs depends entirely on the composition of the olivine magnesium. The higher the amount of magnesium there is, the paler green, almost a yellowish colour is present. Lesser amounts of magnesium equal darker, richer colours.
Mystical Qualities
Going back to the B.C. Egyptian days in the 1500s, Cleopatra famously wore what were thought to be emeralds at th
at time but are now believed to be peridot. Known for her beauty, she ironically wore the gems for completely different purposes.
Among one of its many names, the peridot was also known as, ‘gem of the sun’ in which it carried highly magical powers that worked the best when set inside of pure gold. A line from a poetic representation of this birthstone says:
Wear a Peridot for thee,
No conjugal fidelity,
The August born without this stone,
Tis said, must live unloved alone.
Peridots were believed to ward off evil and protect those who had nightmares but more importantly, these stones were used as positive preventative measures taken against negativity. Wearing these stones meant relaxation, stress reduction and the alleviation of fear, anger and emotional trauma.
Health wise, drinking from a peridot goblet was thought to increase medicinal potency, heal persons with asthma as well as an all-over body tonic. The uses for this stone were endless and while this carried a lot of believers all of those centuries back, people of today still feel a sense of awe when wearing it.
Gift Ideas
Peridots aren’t one of the harder gemstones like diamonds and emeralds are but they can be just as expensive. It only has a 6.5 – 7 rating o
n the Moh’s scale of hardness which means that you must take excellent care of your peridot! This means follow your jewellery professional’s instructions and never try to fix it or give it a good, hard cleaning at home.
It might be your favourite gift in the form of a ring, earrings, bracelets or necklaces that you’ll want to wear without taking off for days at a time but this is one gemstone that you should save for special occasions. Household chores, daily errands, cleaning peridots or any type of hard wear will allow a distinctive absorption spectrum to show or worse, break or dent the gemstone which is definitely be something you wouldn’t want to do.
Peridots aren’t necessarily extremely bright stones but they do have a lot of sparkle within their pale colours. Like its birth month, peridots look fantastic during the summertime making it largely popular for favourite summer jewellery.
Lime green may not be the colour that people think will go with any clothes or other coloured gems but it can actually get along quite well with a lot of colours! Thinking about summer colours again, peridots look amazing with white, turquoise, peach and yellow colours so don’t worry about clashing or only wearing it with exact matching exact. Mix it up a little!
After reading up on all the amazing qualities peridots have to offer, who doesn’t wish their birthday was in August?
