09/09/09

As everyone knows, today is 09/09/09. For what it's worth, today's date is the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century, until January 1, 2101. For some cutlures, there's a bit more to the number nine.

From Yahoo News...

For cultures in which the number nine is lucky, Sept. 9 is anticipated - while others might see the date as an ominous warning.

Both China and Japan have strong feelings about the number nine. Those feelings just happen to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.

For Chinese, nine comes in second on their list of auspicious digits and is associated with long life, due to how similar its pronunciation is to the local word for long-lasting. Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closely with the number nine, which appeared prominently in architecture and royal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons. The imperial dynasties were so convinced of the power of the number nine that the palace complex at Beijing's Forbidden City is rumored to have been built with 9,999 rooms.

In Japanese, the word for nine is a homophone for the word for suffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky - second only to four, which sounds like death. Many Japanese will go so far as to avoid room numbers including nine at hotels or hospitals, if the building planners haven't already eliminated them altogether.