Canadian Fairy Stones

The Alonquin Indians, inhabitants of the Quebec region in Canada, call these unusual calcite formations fairy stones, because an old tradition from the region says that these stones formed by nature are messengers of love and good luck. Therefore, the beautiful fairy stones are gladly venerated as a gift from the heart to a beloved person or a good friend. The legend says further that with the fairy stones also health, prosperity and luck are handed over; therefore, the Aloquin already carry the Fairy Stones for many centuries as a lucky charm, for example, on the hunt.

The Canadian fairy stones were formed about 10,000 years ago at the bottom of large glacial lakes and consist largely of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), calcite. The fancy shapes, which look like they were designed by an artist, are exclusively the work of Mother Nature.

After the long, cold Canadian winters, each spring countless colonies of microorganisms awoke from their winter torpor and grew rapidly due to the steadily rising water temperature. Then, at the end of summer, this trend reversed and the microorganisms lapsed back into their winter torpor.

Over the years, the colonies of microorganisms thus became larger and larger and one layer of sedimentation was followed by the next; this explains the formation of the concentric circles and the lines that look like figures - can you spot a mother and child, a face, an angel, hares, fish, turtles or even a Buddha?



Found in a very lonely area on the beach of some lakes in Abitibi, near Quebec in western Canada. There, a couple has dedicated itself to collecting the fairy stones and goes every year in search of new, fascinating messengers of love. The stones are not treated, but only carefully freed by hand from sand and dirt.

In their French-speaking homeland, the fairy stones are known as "Pierres des Fées".