Culture

9,000 Couples to Marry on Lucky 8/8/08

by JeffHuang | August 1, 2008 at 02:35 pm

321 views | 2 Recommendations | 1 comment

I am personally not a big fan of doing things on certain days due to the special significance of the day. For example, I remember there was a craze over having a baby on January 1st of the year 2000. It might be pretty cool to be married or have a baby on a significant date, but I personally would not go out of my way to make that happen. Maybe I'm not superstitious enough, or I'm not at the age of marriage/babies yet. When that day comes, who knows.

Come the 8th of August, 2008, there will be more than one historical event in China, as some estimated 9,000 couples have will be married on the same day to celebrate the opening of the Olympic Games.

The Chinese government had planned the Olympics to kick off on 8/8/08, due to the number “8″ being very lucky and sounding like part of the phrase “to get rich” in Mandarin.

The thousands of couples hope to also share in the blessing of the rare and lucky date, similar to the 7/7/07 marriage craze in the US.

“We want to show our support for the Olympics, a century-old dream for China, and take part in a major event,” says Liu Huiling, 24, an office assistant. “Who knows if we will ever see another Olympics?”

Before the couples are actually married they will be asked to sign a billboard stating the governments slogan: “A century of the Olympics; a century-long dream; a century-long prayer for happiness; a century of perfect marriage.”

Today was the first day that couples could register to be officially married on the 8th of August and around 1,000 couples have already registered.

The estimated 9,000 couple wedding record would more than double China’s previous single-day wedding record.

All that being said, I do understand why there is a record 9000 couples marrying on that specific date. Many Chinese are still really superstitious and they often look at dates on the calendar and consult with a fortune teller to figure out which day is "lucky". Cellphone numbers and license plate numbers are often picked specifically in hopes of the luck it'll bring.

8 is an extremely popular number in Chinese culture as it sounds like the word get rich, or fortune in Chinese. So what else can be better or luckier than getting married or having a child on the date August 8th 2008 (08/08/08)