January birthstone - GARNET - fact and legends

Garnets are a favorite of ours at Dakota Nature, brilliant and fiery, and the birthstone for those lucky enough to be born in January. Glowing, from fire red to subdued wine shades, garnets are truly beautiful.

Eons past, scarlet garnet necklaces adorned pharaohs in life and later entombed beside their mummified remains. The Romans sported garnets in rings and ornate jewelry, employing carved gemstones as prestigious insignias for sealing wax-bound decrees.
Attesting to its' value, red garnets were among the most widely traded gems in the time of Pliney the Elder, and In the Middle Ages red garnets were worn by clergy and nobility and used as a remedy for the plague and inflammatory diseases. Like Rubies, a garnet was believed to alert its owner of approaching danger and trouble by changing its color, and was often used as a gift between friends.

Garnet is a hard, durable, brilliant stone, and surprisingly is found in many colors other than the well known deep red, including green, yellow, orange, pink and violet. Garnet even occurs in certain shades of red that have been taken for some varieties of ruby. In fact the name Garnet appears to originate with the Latin 'granatum malum' which means pomegranate.

Garnet is the traditional birthstone for January and the stone for the Zodiac sign of Aquarius. Find garnets at Dakota Nature LLC.