“In ancient times, a woman was often associated with a crescent moon, and therefore pendants, earrings, and other jewelry were made in the form of night lights. In the 19th and 20th centuries, jewelry was an essential part of casual and festive attire. Financial wellbeing of each woman was determined by the amount of jewelry she owned. Earrings were one of the most popular item of jewelry. Young girls got their ears pierced at a very young age. Kids used to wear copper earrings, young girls and women wore silver or golden earrings. People believed in a lot of superstitions about earrings, for example: wearing earrings can help reduce headaches, or loosing an earring meant receiving bad news. 

“These particular earrings are very dear to me. My grandmother gave them to me for my ten year old’s birthday. At that time I thought of them to be very old fashioned. But as years went by I started to appreciate these earrings more because they represented the history and traditions of my ancestors. When I moved to the US I took them with me as a symbol of the place where I come from. Last November my grandmother passed away. This piece of jewelry is even more precious to me as it connects to my roots and to the memory of my grandmother.”

– Olya

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant