12/13/14 and other magical numbers

12.13.14Facebook probably already told you this, but yesterday was 12/13/14.

Plenty of people had birthdays or anniversaries, but the significance for most of us lay largely in the quaint, clean progression of numerals.

We are pattern-recognizing animals, after all.

Numbers on clocks and calendars are artificial constructs people created to give order to their days and years. These are utilitarian practices. Calendars told farmers when to plant and hunters when to hunt. These most basic life-giving acts depended on the right timing and calendars provided predictability.

Completely utilitarian.

Except that we humans delight in tracking and acknowledging anniversaries, birthdays, and the occasional coincidental sequence of numbers.

Which makes 12/13/14 pretty cool.

Boat loads of weddings yesterday, I’d guess. More than your typical Saturday two weeks before Christmas, for sure.

When Facebook reminded me that it was 12/13/14, it got me thinking. Have people always cared about cute strings of numbers like today’s date or the time 11:11?

Is blogging about clever dates a luxury we’re afforded because of our comparatively privileged existence compared to the whole of human history? Could be.

In my hour of digging, I did not uncover ancient cultures blogging about quirky dates. But, I did learn that as far back as half a million years ago humans made bowls from the skulls of those vanquished in battle and used them to track the passage of time. Gnarly, right?

Good dates and bad dates abound throughout history. I think my modern upbringing in this Pacific Northwest corner of the western world keeps me completely out of touch with such concerns.

So, my findings are purely yet exquisitely fascinating.

In Scottish culture, May is an unlucky month and, as wedding dates go, May 3rd is as unlucky as you can get. June, better.

In Moroccan culture, you can get married any time you want. Oh, except from February 24th to March 4th, which is hesoum. Marriage strictly prohibited this week. But, hey, you’ve got 51 others so stop complaining.

An Egyptian papyrus dating from over 3000 years ago delineates good and bad days for doing all manner of things. The bad days were shown with red hieroglyphs.

We’re not so superstitious as past societies and cultures. Not by a long shot. If you think of the most superstitious person you’ve ever met, he or she might reach middle-of-the-road by ancient standards. For most of us, newspaper horoscopes are amusing at best, like reading the write-in letters in Cosmo (female friends of mine in college, not me. I swear.).

Thankfully, science and technology have advanced far enough to fill in many of the blank spaces where mystery and superstition once served as placeholders.

I’m glad for this. There are plenty of mysteries still to solve without worrying about the date or day of the week that might prove unlucky. Friday the 13th, you have no power over me. I have bigger things to focus on.

12/13/14, it’s been fun! Now it’s time to busy ourselves with real life as we await the arrival of 1/5/15.