Wearing Charm Bracelets – a Short History

Since the time of the Pharaohs men, women and even children have been using charms as amulets to keep them safe from evil or for fortune and prosperity. The use of charms on bracelets seems to have begun in ancient Egypt where the people wore them as signs of their faith and to take with them to the next world so that their gods would name them and assign them their appropriate rank.

The early Christians in Rome wore a charm shaped like a fish to identify themselves to one another. During the Dark Ages, charms were worn for religious and political identification and to designate the family of the bearer. In the Middle Ages, knights wore them to guard themselves during battle and the general populace also wore charms. All through the Renaissance their use declined, principally by the more affluent classes, as they became better educated and less inclined to be superstitious. In spite of this the less well-read poorer classes carried on wearing charms as protection against wickedness and to give them good luck.

The wearing of charms was revitalized in the UK by Queen Victoria who wore a silver charm bracelet with lockets which contained pictures of her family. This had an immense impact on the wearing of charm bracelets by the general population who began to wear them, not as talismans, but as decorative objects. Lockets and family crests became the mode of the day. Following the end of World War 2 there was a huge outbreak of charm wearing as servicemen brought back gems and beads to their sweetheart from far flung places of the world. Jewelers in the United States picked up the craze and started to produce charms and gold charm jewelry. Ever since wearing charm jewelry has continued to thrive.

Nowadays a widespread variety of charm bracelets, necklaces and earrings are accessible with bracelets being the most admired. The precious metals, silver and gold, are ordinarily used though some people prefer bracelets made from seed pearls or beads with silver or gold charms. Bracelets vary in price from below $100 to more than $1000 so are within everyone’s resources. There are lots of kinds of religious charms depicting saints and a substantial array of charms depicting objects and animals including rabbits, dolphins, cupids, hearts etc. One of the most fashionable are angel charms.