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“Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, and white aligns with God’s promise of life everlasting and the purity, hope and goodness that Jesus’ life and death represent,” Sawaya says.
The earliest known emerald is a single unengraved stone mounted in a gold ring, dated circa 330–300 BC. A 3rd century BC date is far too late for emeralds to appear in Exodus and Ezekiel. [5] However, the Greek and Latin terms smaragdos, smaragdus are broad enough to include other green gemstones, the most valuable of which was the emerald.
It depicts Christ crucified on a lily, or holding such a plant. The symbolism may derive from the medieval belief that the Annunciation of Christ and his crucifixion occurred on the same day of the year, March 25. [30] (The lily, in the context of the Annunciation, emphasises the purity of the Virgin Mary.)
Citrine “A powerful gemstone crystal in a range of deep yellows, oranges, and yellow-cream-white, the citrine gemstone is said to bring abundance and wealth into one’s life,” Salzer says.
Andrzej Piotrowski writes that Byzantine churches after Justinian's Hagia Sophia often had gold-covered domes with a ring of windows and that gold, as "the most precious metal and the paradigm of purity, was a sign of light and divinity in the writings of St. Basil and Pseudo-Dionysius. It 'does not rust, decompose, or wear and can be beaten to ...
This tradition flowed throughout the centuries, as European churches used gold leaf to outline the richness and the sacredness of the domes, altars, and sculptures. [7] Domes are an especially salient feature faced with gold leaf. In Russian Orthodox architecture, gilded onion domes symbolize the realms of heaven and usually have theological ...
Silver was associated with moral purity, as silver metal must be refined from its ore. [10] Brass symbolized hardness, strength, and firmness. [11] Brass was a substitute for gold, and iron for silver. [12] Salt was offered with every sacrifice; [13] the preservative effect of salt symbolized the eternity of the covenant between God and Israel ...
The blossom. Before the pontificate of Sixtus IV (1471–84) the Golden Rose consisted of a simple and single blossom made of pure gold and slightly tinted with red. Later, to embellish the ornament while still retaining the mystical symbolism, the gold was left untinted but rubies and afterwards many precious gems were placed in the heart of the rose or on its petals.