07/07/07: Is This
Your Lucky Day?
Those superstitious
types who freaked out
last year when the
calendar read 06/06/06
will have something to
smile about on the 7th
day of the 7th month,
2007.
Believing the triple
appearance of the number
7 will bring luck, many
people are planning
important events for
this first Saturday in
July.
Brides and grooms,
especially, looking for
a little extra dose of
marital fortune, are
flocking to the altar in
droves on 07/07/07,
according to wedding
watchers.
If they only knew what
the Chinese were
thinking.
The number seven is
considered lucky due to
its frequent and
favorable appearance in
the Bible, say
historians.
"As the number of the
days of God's first
week, of the levels of
heaven...of the numbers
of angels and trumpets,
etc., the number came in
the last few centuries
BCE to represent divine
perfection," said David
Frankfurter, professor
of religious studies and
history at the
University of New
Hampshire. "Something
organized seven-fold
meant that it
corresponded to God's
own arrangement."
Numbers control our
fate?
Just as some people
wouldn't dare get
married on a Friday the
13th or live in a house
with the address 666,
believing in the
positive influence of
the number seven is just
another technique humans
use to have some
jurisdiction over the
chaotic world around
them, said Frankfurter.
“In our modern society
we have a tendency to
look for magical ways to
control the world or
fate, so numerology is
especially important for
us,” Frankfurter said.
The obsession with
numerology—and other
para-sciences like
astrology—tends to get
stronger especially
during significant life
events like marriages,
he added. "It represents
Americans' rather weak
(compared to Asian
cultures') attempt to
exert some numerical or
calendrical control over
important life-cycle,
transition, or other
crisis situations,"
Frankfurter told
LiveScience.
Seven not lonely in luck
Trying to find meaning
in numbers is a practice
that goes back to
ancient times, say
historians, and doesn't
begin and end with 6, 7
and 13.
There are many other
numbers in the Bible
that were thought to
have sacred meanings,
said Frankfurter,
including twelve (for
the tribes of Israel and
the zodiac), five (books
of Moses) and four
(archangels, gospels).
Lucky numbers also vary
from culture to culture,
proving, skeptics say,
that coincidental
connections between an
event and the influence
of a number can always
be found if you're
looking hard enough, no
matter what the digit.
Chinese culture, for
example, associates
"degrees" of luck
according to how a
number is pronounced.
Eight, whose Chinese
name rhymes with the
words for prosperity and
wealth, is considered
particularly auspicious.
The Beijing Olympics, as
a result, will open next
year at 8 p.m. on Aug.
8, 2008.
Oh, and many Chinese
consider 7 a very
unlucky number
associated with death.
Don’t tell the brides.
P.S. If you miss out on
all the 07/07/07 hype,
you can still look
forward to 08/08/08 next
year. Not quite as
lucky, but still
exciting. |
