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TIL that because the number eight in Cantonese means “fortune”, or “to prosper”, the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing began on 8/8/08 at 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8 pm local time (UTC+08).

by whatilearned June 23, 2022, 5:29 am

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerology

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began beijing Cantonese ceremony fortune local means minutes number Olympics opening prosper seconds summer TIL time Today I learned UTC08

3 Comments

kageseb says:

June 23, 2022 at 5:29 am

And IIRC the number 4 is a homophone for death… So no floors with the number 4 in it. 4 is unlucky in a few Asian countries like 13 is unlucky in the Anglosphere.

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Sensitive_Lettuce says:

June 23, 2022 at 5:29 am

They’re homophones, but they’re written differently. And it’s not only in Cantonese, but most Chinese languages including Mandarin.

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IvanTheFirst says:

June 23, 2022 at 5:29 am

So… on the Fortunth of Fortune, two-thousand and Fortune at Fortune minutes and Fortune seconds past Fortune pm local time (UTC+Fortune). That’s very fortunate.

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