Is it bad luck to get married on a double number date?

It takes two individuals to make a covenant of affection. No surprise, then, that in primarily Christian elements of the world, the quantity two is thought to be the “variety of Christian love and mutual affection, of marriages and social life.” Not less than that is how the German polymath Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim put it in his Sixteenth-century seminal work, “Three Books of Occult Philosophy,” which handled magic and its relationship with faith.

Nowadays, {couples} who want to have their bond mirrored of their wedding ceremony date can have a good time with the quantity two on 22.02.2022. In Germany, a doubled quantity is known as a “Schnapszahl” or “liquor quantity” for the truth that there’s the tendency to see issues double when drunk.

A “Schnapszahl” date is symbolic of energy, says Berlin psychotherapist and creator Wolfgang Krüger. “Individuals attribute a sure fortunate impact to it,” he instructed German information company, dpa. This, he mentioned, corresponds to the angle towards marriage, which is symbolically charged.

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Fortunate numbers and auspicious dates

Selecting to have weddings on a date with numbers thought of fortunate is completed around the globe. In China, there have been quite a few mass weddings on auspicious dates, particularly in 2008 and 2009, for the reason that numbers eight and 9 have nice significance in some elements of the world. In China, for instance, the quantity eight is related to wealth and well being.

On August 8, 2008, 314,224 {couples} mentioned “I do” to 1 one other — greater than 15,000 in Beijing alone. Getting married on 09.09.2009 was anticipated to result in a protracted and glad future, as a result of when pronounced, the quantity 9 sounds just like the phrase “jiu,” which suggests “long-lasting.”

Doubled numbers — particularly eights and nines — are thought of fortunate in China, the place it’s mentioned that “good issues are available in pairs.” Two isn’t a foul quantity both, as even numbers are thought of steady and balanced.

Numbers of misfortune

Nevertheless, particular numbers which can be assigned attainable optimistic and adverse results fluctuate from tradition to tradition.

In India, as an example, eight is the variety of misfortune. In China, in the meantime, the unfortunate quantity is 4 because of its phonetic similarity to the phrase “dying.” Even outdoors of China, many Asians now keep away from the quantity because of its adverse connotations. In buildings, for instance, the third flooring is sometimes adopted by the fifth, and in skyscrapers, the flooring 40 to 49 are generally skipped.

In China, in addition to in Thailand and Vietnam, seven can also be an unfortunate quantity. The seventh month is thought to be a month of ghosts. In distinction, seven is commonly a fortunate quantity in Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures. Within the respective holy scriptures there are quite a few examples through which the quantity seven guarantees good issues. Within the Bible, for instance, the world was created in seven days.

In lots of cultures, 13 is the variety of misfortune. The superstitious worry of the quantity 13 even has its personal time period, “triskaidekaphobia.” Some airways subsequently do with no thirteenth row of their fleet of aircrafts.

Friday the thirteenth isn’t solely unpopular amongst brides and grooms: it has additionally been ingrained in popular culture, most famously by way of the 1980 horror movie of the identical title directed by Sean Cunningham. The worry of this date can flip right into a phobia: Those that keep away from appointments on Friday the thirteenth or cannot get away from bed on this present day could undergo from “paraskavedekatriaphobia,” which comes from the Greek phrases for Friday, “paraskevi” and 13 “dekatria.”

The origins of quantity symbolism

Creator Udo Becker says in his work “Lexicon of Symbols,” that numbers “in most cultures and religions are image carriers with meanings which can be wealthy, usually difficult and never all the time clear at present.” The connection between numbers and that means has existed for millennia, not less than since 2900 BC in Mesopotamia.

The that means of numbers was additionally prevalent in Pythagorean tradition. The Kabbalah teachings — an orally transmitted mystical custom inside Judaism — and medieval magical speculations are identified for having connections between numbers and that means. Nevertheless, at present quantity symbolism lives on, principally in esoteric numerology, which in accordance with Becker consists of “principally fully baseless speculations.”

How a quantity arrives at its that means can fluctuate vastly. In Kabbalah, for instance, this occurs by means of the interchangeability of numbers and letters. One other risk is mirrored by the instance of the quantity 4 in China, the place phonetic similarity with the phrase “dying” was the origin of the affiliation. Non secular traditions and conventional fairy tales are different sources.

Double quantity weddings: A foul thought?

In Germany, February is a somewhat unpopular wedding ceremony month, statistically talking. Between 2011 and 2020, solely a mean of three.5% of all weddings befell on this winter month. Nevertheless the dates turn out to be extra well-liked when calendar palindromes — sequences of numbers like these on February 22, 2022, which learn the identical forwards and backwards — come into play. Two years in the past, the dates 02.02.2020 and 20.02.2020 had been linked to marriage peaks in February.

Nevertheless, researchers on the College of Melbourne in 2016 found quantity symbolism usually would not work in a pair’s favor. Their research of a Dutch marriage and divorce registry discovered that marriages contracted on double quantity dates had an 18% elevated threat of failure.

Psychotherapist Wolfgang Krüger sees the rationale for this phenomenon to be the truth that {couples} who selected such dates had been extra usually involved with outward appearances and infrequently lacked the endurance and the interior connection to get by means of occasions of disaster.

Symbolism or not, dates with fewer completely different digits are simpler to recollect. Some individuals select a date like February 22, 2022, purely for pragmatic causes — maybe even within the hope that they will not simply neglect their wedding ceremony anniversary.

This text was initially written in German.