Black Pearls for June

I picked PEARLS as my theme for June because they are the month’s birthstone. And, I just love the international legends I found about pearls. For ancient Chinese, natural black pearls were created in the brains of dragons and fell from the sky when dragons fought. Chinese art often depicts a dragon holding onto the pearl safely between its teeth or paws. An ancient myth from Ceylon portrays a lake of tears created as a result of tears shed by Adam and Eve. From Eve’s tears, white pearls were created whereas from Adam’s tears came black pearls. Since men were thought to shed fewer tears than women, the scarcity of Adam’s tears is used to explain the rarity of black pearls as compared to white ones. The Japarnese equated pearls with tears of mythical nymphs, mermaids and angels. Ancient Greeks believed that pearls were formed when rain or dewdrops haphazardly fell into an oyster. In ancient Greece, pearls symbolized love and marriage; wearing them supposedly promoted marital bliss. And we could all use some of that, right?!? 

These are in the mail to my earrings-of-the-month club members tomorrow!