Why 09/09/09 Is So Special

By Heather Whipps, Special to LiveScience

posted: 08 September 2009 09:18 am ET

Have special plans this 09/09/09?

Everyone from brides and grooms to movie studio execs are celebrating the upcoming calendrical anomaly in their own way.

In Florida, at least one county clerk's office is offering a one-daywedding special for $99.99. The rarity of this Sept. 9 hasn't been loston the creators of the iPod, who have moved their traditional Tuesdayrelease day to Wednesday to take advantage of the special date. FocusFeatures is releasing their new film "9," an animated tale about the apocalypse, on the 9th.

Not only does the date look good in marketing promotions, but italso represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates thatwe'll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium(mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending on how you want tocount it.

Though technically there's nothing special about the symmetrical date, some concerned with the history and meaning of numbers ascribe powerful significance to 09/09/09. 

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

Math magic

Modern numerologists — who operate outside the realm of real science— believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned toeach numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digitsproduce tangible results in life depending on their application.

As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It isassociated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positiveside as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative,according to numerologists.

Though usually discredited as bogus,numerologists do have a famous predecessor to look to. Pythagoras, theGreek mathematician and father of the famous theorem, is also creditedwith popularizing numerology in ancient times.

"Pythagoras most of all seems to have honored and advanced the studyconcerned with numbers, having taken it away from the use of merchantsand likening all things to numbers," wrote Aristoxenus, an ancientGreek historian, in the 4th century B.C.

As part of hisobsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like manymathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine inparticular had many unique properties.

Any grade-schooler could tell you, for example, that the sum of thetwo-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digitnumber will equal nine. So 9x3=27, and 2+7=9.

Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums ofthose will also break down to nine. For example: 9x62 = 558; 5+5+8=18;1+8=9.

Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2)...

Loving 9

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

The Chinese pulled out all the stops to celebrate their lucky numbereight during last year's Summer Olympics, ringing the games in at 8p.m. on 08/08/08.What many might not realize is that nine comes in second on their listof auspicious digits and is associated with long life, due to howsimilar its pronunciation is to the local word for long-lasting (eightsounds like wealth).

Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closelywith the number nine, which appeared prominently in architecture androyal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons.  The imperialdynasties were so convinced of the power of the number nine that thepalace complex at Beijing's Forbidden City is rumored to have beenbuilt with 9,999 rooms.

Japanese emperors would have never worn a robe with nine dragons, however.

In Japanese, the word for nine is a homophone for the word forsuffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky – second only tofour, which sounds like death.

Many Japanese will go so far as to avoid room numbers including nineat hotels or hospitals, if the building planners haven't alreadyeliminated them altogether.