Buying jade for yourself
Many shoppers hesitate before buying jade for themselves, having heard it should only come as a gift. A New Zealand jade studio says no traditional teaching forbids it, and that the worry grew out of a generous custom of giving.
What it may mean
In New Zealand, pounamu, the local greenstone or jade, was carved and given as a high honor among Māori, used to seal bonds and even peace between tribes. A New Zealand jade studio writing about the question says that no traditional teaching forbids buying your own piece; the gift-only rule seems to be a modern reading of that old custom of giving. It is a familiar pattern. A generous habit, practiced long enough, begins to resemble a law, and people start to fear breaking it. The same thing happens in families: the aunt who always hosted becomes the only one allowed to host. Before you buy a jade pendant, it is worth noticing which of your customs began as gifts and have slowly hardened into rules.
Depending on how you saw it
A pounamu pendant in New Zealand
Visitors to New Zealand often hesitate in greenstone shops, unsure whether they may buy a piece for themselves. One studio's published answer is that they may, though many buyers still prefer to give one. Which gift in your life mattered because of the giver more than the object?
An old jade piece from an antique shop
Chinese residents of the United States once prized above all a jade wristlet recovered from a grave, as protection against evil spirits. An object's past travels with it. Does an earlier life make a thing dearer to you, or more unsettling?
Jade from Myanmar or Guatemala
Most jadeite sold as jewelry comes from Myanmar, and Guatemala has a long Maya tradition of jade carving. A pendant has usually made a long journey before it reaches a shop counter. What do you know about where your favorite possessions came from?
Why it happens in nature
The word jade covers two different minerals, nephrite and jadeite. Both are made of tightly interlocking fibers or grains, which makes them unusually tough and hard to break, so people carved jade into tools and weapons long before it became jewelry. Its value rests on color, translucency and carving, which is why it has long been a prized gift.
What folk beliefs say
Spain
The Spanish, a 1903 collection says, wore the jade stone for good fortune.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 734. View the page
Chinese communities in the United States
Among Chinese residents of the United States, the same collection says, a jade wristlet was the one charm commonly worn; some held that it gave strength to the arm, and one recovered from a grave was most highly valued as protection against evil spirits.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 3 (1903), vol. 3, p. 1330. View the page
To reflect on
Which of your customs began as a generous habit and has turned into a rule?