Tomorrow is 11/11/11. I’m as fascinated as anyone by this fact. A bunch of people are getting married on that date. Is it that they consider it particularly lucky, or is it that they just want to make sure they don’t forget their anniversaries? Or maybe it’s that it’s a peculiar phenomenon that takes place 12 times at the beginning of the century, then not at all for 88 years, that they wish to embrace.
The movie being released on that date with that name is being directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Saw III, and Saw IV); to say that I’ll never see it is a gross underexaggeration.
The repeated number phenomenon is much more interesting to me than the sequential system – 09/10/11, e.g. It’s because the latter is not universal. In the United States, that’d be September 10, but in most of the rest of the world, it’s October 9.
Not that I wouldn’t use the sequential if it made sense. My officemate Amelia was pregnant and due on 8 October. So I picked 09 (day)/10 (month)/11 (year) at 12:13 pm. Charlie was born on 9 October 2011, at 12:51 p.m., and I won the office pool. Amelia’s happy because he was born on Jackson Browne’s birthday.
There will be other repeated phenomena, such as 2/2/22, 3/3/33, which will save us from a total desert of no repeated digits.
Let’s look back at the previous repeating digits this century:
01/01/01, a Monday – the beginning of the 21st century, and the third millennium as many needed to point out. We learn that many people cannot spell the word millennium, which has 2 Ns, not 1.
02/02/02, a Saturday – Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, heir to the Dutch throne, marries Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti in Amsterdam.
03/03/03, a Monday – “third day of the third month of the third year of the third millennium. That’s an awful lot of threes,” as noted here.
04/04/04, a Sunday – According to the Hartford (CT) House of Prayer, “This date is strategic. God raises up prophets to point the direction.”
05/05/05, a Thursday – The Canadian House of Assembly celebrates “the victory that Canadian troops helped make in World War II.”
06/06/06, a Tuesday – A number of sites express concern over occult happenings. Also, If Your Child Is Born on 06-06-06; Christian Parenting Alert!
07/07/07, a Saturday – Conversely, the Magical Qualities of the Number 7 led to perhaps the biggest wedding day ever.
08/08/08, a Friday – The Beijing Summer Olympics began on this date because 8 is lucky in Chinese culture.
09/09/09, a Wednesday – The Beatles’ mono and stereo remasters are released as well as the Beatles on Rock Band.
10/10/10, a Sunday – Yet another significant day.
11/11/11 will be a Friday, of course, and 12/12/12 will be on a Wednesday.