It’s 12/12/12! And at MeloTel, we’re excited for no other reason than today’s date being of the once-in-a-century, cool repetitious variety. Today is quite special, however, because it will be the last day in our lifetimes that such a repetitive date will occur. After all, there is no 13th month. We’d have to wait until the next millennium to see another day like today.
As far as most of our lifetimes are concerned, it all started back in the year 2001. The first day of the year, of course, was 01/01/01. Each year since then included a date where all three numbers were the same. Naturally, this has taken place 12 times in the past 12 years. Today, however, is it. Say goodbye to the repetitive date forever! What’s the point in all of this?
Well, people often make big deals of numbers. Don’t believe us? There are news reports from all over Canada about the huge number of couples getting married today. And yes, it’s a Wednesday. But that doesn’t seem to phase the superstitious or the overly sentimental. In fact, Yahoo.com reports that people all over the world are fascinated with today’s date.
“The date is popular across the globe,” writes Jessica Ferri, “French news agency the Agence France Presse reports that in Hong Kong nearly four times as many couples will be married on 12-12-12, as compared to last year, and in Singapore, 540 couples will be married on 12-12-12, eight times as many from the previous year.”
Some think that today’s date is extra special due to the number 12. Apparently, there is a lot of significance to the number, making today’s date somehow more alluring than the other triple dates that have occurred in the past decade. A friend of MeloTel’s commented on the power of the number 12 earlier this week.
“The number 12 is special,” he insisted, “It has its own term, ‘dozen’. It’s the number of months in a year. A clock has 12 numbers and all times of the day are represented by numbers up to 12. It’s also the last number to have it’s own unique name. Beginning with the teens, the names of all other numbers have already-established digits as prefixes – or they’re just attached to the end”
Wow! Perhaps, our friend was stretching with that last point. But you have to admit, he does have some a point to some degree. No matter what significance you place on today’s date, we certainly hope you enjoy it. Sure, it’s not exactly Christmas or anything, but the repetitive numbers that make up this day is being talked about quite a lot.
To all those getting married, congratulations! And to all those being born today, be glad you’re not the child of our before-mentioned friend. “If I had a kid today, I would name him ‘Twelve’,” he told us, “Could there be a more reasonable choice? His name and birthday would always be conversation starters. I’d be doing him a favour!”