Chinese on Numbers: Yey or Ney?
2:34 AM
When thinking of usernames or passwords, we always try to use numbers that have some sort of meaning to use like birthdays and anniversaries. And believe it or not, numbers play a very important role to Chinese culture. Studying the dates when is the best time to get married, when is the appropriate time to have a child, picking which combination/s will bring luck or fortune, even sometimes as simple as cellphone numbers and house numbers is quite common. I don't know if this can be considered as superstitions but as far as I'm concerned, Chinese are very well-involved in this kind of practice.
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| Source from Google Images |
Okay, so starting off with the lucky numbers! Zero (O) or 零 (líng) in Chinese is considered lucky because it is an even number and often associated with money (cha-ching!). Well, how really, I don't know it came to this. Maybe because of the number of zeros in money denominators (10s, 100s, 1000s, and so on).
The number two (2) or 二 (èr), 两(liang) in Chinese is a lucky number as there is a Chinese saying that goes "good things will come in pairs". It's very common to encounter this symbol 喜which stands for happiness though in Chinese weddings, it's more often written like this 囍 which actually still means and pronounced the same way, but if you notice, it's written as pairs to symbolize the happiness of the marriage.
Three (3) or 三 (sān) , on the other hand, is considered lucky as it represents the "three" stages in life - child, adult and elderly or birth, marriage and death (it goes the same way).
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| Source from Google Images |
Now, more so often before, the number six (6) always appear in three's in Western horror/scary films that brings misfortune and symbolizes the devil or hell; however, in Chinese culture, it's an extremely lucky number - the more, the better, even - because this number or 六 ( liù ) has the same sound which also means flow or smooth. Chinese think the number six (6) is a great number to represent businesses, with a mindset that fortune would flow in and business would operate smoothly.
The luckiest of the lucky numbers is the number eight (8). This number is greatly valued that there's a mall in Binondo, Manila (considered as the Chinatown of the city) called 888 Meisic Hall. It's so special because eight (8) or 八 (bā) has a very similar pronunciation to 發 (fā) which means to be wealthy. Moreover, if you turn 8 to the side, it becomes an infinity symbol; hence, infinite wealth!
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| Source from Google Images |
Fun Fact: The opening ceremony in Beijing Olympics held on August 8, 2008 (08-08-2008) precisely started 8:08:08 pm or 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8pm. LOL!
Moving on to the unlucky numbers, this is quite self-explanatory. Four (4) or 四 ( sì ) is very bad luck to Chinese. This number has the same pronounciation of 死 (sǐ) which means death. No one wants anything associated to death so it's natural Chinese would avoid this number at all costs.
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| Source from Google Images |
It's common belief that the number thirteen (13) is just bad luck. For the Chinese, if you add 1 and 3 together, it brings 4 which means death as mention. Hence, explains why most buildings always skip the thirteenth floor. But believe it or not, the unluckiest number of all is the number fourteen (14) because one (1) can be pronouced as ( yī ) or (yao). Yao has a double meaning of the number one or "want to" so when you combined 1 and 4 together, it could mean "want to die"!
If you're a superstitious person, you might believe these stuff, but I honestly grew up with this kind of practice so I already got used to it. So, this ends my post! Write soon!
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