Is Jade a Birthstone? Jade's Birth Month, Zodiac Signs and Chinese Zodiac

Jade is not on the modern birthstone chart, where March belongs to aquamarine and bloodstone, but some mystical birthstone lists give March to jade. Western zodiac pairings for jade vary from source to source, with no standard behind any of them. And jade has a birth tradition of its own in the Chinese zodiac, where the stone is carved with the animal of your birth year. If you're choosing a birthday piece while you read, browse our jade jewelry collection.

I'm Hong, founder of BMjade. I've bought rough directly at the Hpakant mine pits in Myanmar since 2016 and finished it in our own Kunming workshop, and we sell natural jadeite and nephrite. Where a claim below comes from a published source, I've linked it so you can check.

Is jade a birthstone?

Jade is not on the modern Western birthstone chart, where March belongs to aquamarine and bloodstone. Some lists of so-called mystical birthstones give March to jade: Jeweller Magazine printed one in 2005, and many jewelry and crystal sites repeat it. The birthstone pages of the American Gem Society and the International Gem Society don't include it, and I haven't found a gemological body that maintains it, so the accurate answer is this: jade is not the modern March birthstone, but it is the March stone on the mystical lists.

Jade birthstone claims: who says what

The disagreement isn't marginal. Here is the spread of claims, and what stands behind each one.

Of these, only the March row traces to a published list I could find, and even that list has no institution behind it; the rest is opinion. That isn't a criticism: symbolic reasoning is how these associations have always been made. It's a warning about how they're presented. When six sources give six different zodiac signs and all six state it as fact, none of them is reporting a standard, because there isn't one. No astrological body maintains an official gemstone registry.

The mystical birthstone list: what it is and what it isn't

The mystical birthstone list is a parallel to the modern chart that gives March to jade rather than to aquamarine. It is usually described as Tibetan and about a thousand years old, but I could not find a historical record that supports either claim, and neither the American Gem Society nor the International Gem Society includes it on their birthstone pages. What can be pointed to is print: Jeweller Magazine listed jade as March's mystical birthstone in 2005, and the many sites that reproduce the list agree on March.

So the mystical list is a real, published association, and the most consistent jade birthstone claim there is. It is not an official standard, and it shouldn't be described as one.

It's worth knowing what the modern chart is, too. It is a twentieth-century trade standard: the National Association of Jewelers adopted it in 1912, and it has been revised since, most recently with spinel for August in 2016. The idea of birthstones is much older, going back to the twelve stones of Aaron's breastplate, and the custom of wearing your own month's stone dates to around the 16th century, according to the International Gem Society. Jade's absence from the 1912 chart says something about American jewelry retail at the time, not about jade.

How to describe a jade birthday gift accurately

This is the practical part.

That last row is worth a moment. A personal birthstone is a fair way to frame a gift, not a consolation prize: you chose the stone for what it means, and you can say so.

The Chinese zodiac: jade's own birth tradition

Jade does have a birth-linked tradition, and it isn't a birthstone list. It's the Chinese zodiac, whose twelve animals were already in their familiar order by the Eastern Han dynasty, nearly two thousand years ago, as the Metropolitan Museum of Art notes.

In my experience, many Chinese families choose a child's jade by the birth-year animal, the shengxiao, rather than by a month chart. Someone born in a Dragon year wears a dragon; someone born in a Rabbit year wears a rabbit. It's specific to the person and needs no borrowed symbolism, which is why a zodiac carving is a common jade birthday gift in those families.

The twelve Chinese zodiac animals and their years

When the Chinese zodiac year starts

The Chinese zodiac year does not start on January 1. We go by Chinese New Year, which falls between January 21 and February 20 depending on the year and is the changeover the Hong Kong Observatory uses for its official calendar. Fortune tellers often switch at Lichun, the start of spring, around February 4, instead.

So someone born on January 20, 2024 is not a Dragon: Chinese New Year 2024 fell on February 10, which makes them a Rabbit, the previous year's animal.

If you're buying a zodiac carving for someone born in January or February, check the Chinese New Year date for their birth year before you order. It's an easy mistake to make and an awkward one to correct after the fact. If you're not sure, send their birth date through our contact page and I'll check the cutoff for you.

Benmingnian: your zodiac year and the jade worn for it

Your benmingnian is your zodiac year, when your birth animal comes around again every twelve years: someone born in a Dragon year reaches it again around ages 12, 24, 36 and 48.

Tradition holds that the benmingnian is a year when you're more exposed to bad luck, and families meet it in different ways. Many people wear a pendant of their own animal, and parents and grandparents often buy one for a child's zodiac year. Others wear their guardian Buddha (benming fo), the protective figure assigned to their animal; the Thousand-Armed Guanyin, for example, is the guardian for the Rat, as our Guanyin pendant guide explains. Red is worn throughout the year, often as a red cord for the pendant, which our jade necklace meaning guide covers. And some families hold that you shouldn't wear your own animal in your zodiac year and choose a compatible animal instead. All of these are folk practice, so follow the family's own custom.

Someone's zodiac years fall every twelve years after their birth year, so the table above tells you when the next one comes.

The protection these customs refer to is symbolic; our article on where symbolism and evidence separate covers the difference.

Which zodiac jade people buy most

From what I see in China's jade trade, zodiac carvings sell mostly for milestones and as gifts. People in their own zodiac year buy the most, followed by parents and grandparents buying for a child's zodiac year, the start of school, or a first-month or first-birthday celebration; for a baby, the carving is a keepsake the parents hold until the child is old enough to wear it, since the American Academy of Pediatrics advises against jewelry for infants. The Dragon sells best year after year, the Tiger is a favorite with men, the Horse is a classic gift for a new job or venture, and the Rabbit is popular with women; most other animals sell mainly in their own zodiac year. You can browse every piece we carry in our jade jewelry collection, and our guide to twelve traditional jade carvings explains the other designs you'll see.

Mystical birthstone or Chinese zodiac: which to use for a jade gift

They answer different questions, and you can use both. If the person was born in March, the mystical birthstone is accurate and easy to explain; just call it their mystical birthstone, not their birthstone. If they weren't, the Western charts have nothing for jade, and a personal birthstone is the honest framing. In either case, the zodiac animal works: it's specific to them, and it reflects a Chinese way of giving jade.

For anniversaries, see our guide to jade anniversary gifts. For what jade stands for across cultures, see what jade symbolizes.

Frequently asked questions about the jade birthstone

Is jade a birthstone?

Jade is not a birthstone on the modern Western chart, where March belongs to aquamarine and bloodstone. Some mystical birthstone lists give March to jade, an association Jeweller Magazine printed in 2005, but the American Gem Society and the International Gem Society don't include jade on their birthstone pages.

What month is jade a birthstone for?

Jade is linked to March, on the mystical birthstone lists. A few websites give it May or August, but I haven't found a published list behind those claims.

What is the birthstone for March?

The birthstones for March are aquamarine and bloodstone on the modern chart. Jade is March's stone only on the mystical lists.

What zodiac sign is jade for?

Jade has no standard zodiac sign. Sources variously link it to Virgo, Taurus, Libra, Gemini, Pisces and Aries through symbolic reasoning, and no astrological body maintains an official gemstone registry, so treat any pairing as an association rather than a fact.

Why isn't jade on the modern birthstone list?

Jade isn't on the modern list because that list is a trade standard, adopted by the National Association of Jewelers in 1912 and revised since; jade's absence most likely reflects the American jewelry market of the time rather than anything about the stone.

Is there a Chinese birthstone?

The closest Chinese counterpart to a birthstone is the zodiac animal of your birth year, often carved in jade and worn as a pendant. It is chosen by birth year rather than birth month, so it is a different system from Western birthstones.

What is the Chinese zodiac jade tradition?

The Chinese zodiac jade tradition is choosing a jade carving of the recipient's birth-year animal rather than a stone for their birth month. Someone born in a Dragon year wears a dragon. In many Chinese families it's a common birthday gift, and the zodiac itself has kept its familiar order since the Eastern Han dynasty.

How do I find out my Chinese zodiac animal?

Your Chinese zodiac animal comes from your birth year in the table above, with one catch: most families count the year from Chinese New Year, not January 1, so if you were born in January or February you may belong to the previous year's animal. Fortune tellers often switch at Lichun, around February 4, instead.

What is a benmingnian and why does jade matter for it?

A benmingnian is your zodiac year, when your birth animal comes around again every twelve years. It's traditionally seen as a more exposed year, and families mark it in different ways: a jade pendant of your own animal, your guardian Buddha, a red cord, or, in some families, a compatible animal instead of your own.

Can jade be a birthstone if I wasn't born in March?

Jade can be your personal birthstone whatever month you were born in: you choose it for what it means to you, and you can say so. The zodiac animal route also works for anyone, whatever their birth month.