Writing Eight, 8, Ate

08/08/08 -- That's today, Fortunate Friday, the date of the opening of the Olympic games in Beijing. Right now, it is evening there as you can see at timeandate.com. What about the 8s and why fortunate Friday? That relates to the Chinese pronunciation of the name of the numeral and its culture of significance. In Chinese (Mandarin, I think), the word for eight is pronounced the same as the word for prosperity. The date would be, "ba, ba, ba", not for black sheep or to indicate contempt, but for lots of good luck money wise. Very appropriate, because all the athletes are there to "go for the gold".

In English, we don't determine the meaning or the significance of words based on their pronunciation. Eight, which means the numeral 8, is also pronounced the same as the word ate. But there is no connection between "eightness" and consuming food. Similarly, there's no connection that I know between "baa" and "bah". Chinese must be a very confusing language to master!