Certain gems and stones have a definite relation and appropriateness to the various religious holidays and festivals. Notable among these is the rhodonite, a silicate of magnesia, named from the Greek word _rhodon_, “a rose,” because of its beautiful rose-pink hue. This is found more especially in the Ural Mountains, and in Massachusetts, but in a number of other places as well. In the Ural Mountains one single mass was so immense that ninety horses were needed to move the 22–ton weight a distance of thirty miles to the Imperial Lapidary Works at Ekaterineburg; here the material was cut up into smaller masses to be finally worked up in the Imperial Lapidary Works at Peterhof into a sarcophagus and tomb for the Emperor Nicholas I. This stone is a great favorite in Russia, and is frequently cut into egg-shaped ornaments, either in the form of a simple egg, or of one with a halo and a moonstone effect at one end. It may well be termed the “Easter Stone.” For those unable to afford such an egg-shaped piece of rhodonite, a yellow fibrous gypsum or satinspar cut into a similar form may be substituted. Jade cut in the same way is also sometimes favored, as well as many varieties of rock-crystal. In marked contrast with the joyful festival of Easter stands the most solemn day of the Christian year, Good Friday, and for this day also we have a singularly appropriate stone, the variety of jasper known as the bloodstone. Here the red markings can be regarded as symbolical of the blood of Our Lord, shed for the salvation of mankind in the supreme sacrifice of the Passion. When the head of the Christ is cut in this stone it is often possible to utilize the red spots to figure the drops of blood flowing from the wounds inflicted by the Crown of Thorns. With the glad tidings of Christmas Day is intimately associated the memory of the Star of Bethlehem, which served as a beacon light to guide the three wise men of the East to the humble manger wherein reposed the newly-born Saviour of the World. Hence for this great Christian festival no gem can equal the star-sapphire, combining as it does the pure sapphire-hue, always looked upon as symbolic of the highest moral, spiritual, and religious sentiments, and the mysterious moving star, which, shifting its apparent place with the slightest movement of the stone, seems endowed with a wonderful independent life, just as the phenomenal star of Bethlehem, unlike the fixed and changeless stars of the firmament, glided through the heavenly expanse, by a miraculous motion, due indeed to some supernatural law, but differing in kind and degree from all the usual, every-day aspects of nature.