07-07-07

Isn't seven the most powerfully magical number?
-- Tom Marvolo Riddle to Horace Slughorn     Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Whether you are superstitious, mystical, fascinated by numerology, or simply curious, you have to be just a little bit excited about today, Saturday, July 7, 2007—or, as we like to call it, 07-07-07. Equally intriguing is the fact that for many people Saturday is the seventh day of the week.

The Wikipedia entry for the number seven is mind-boggling.



Seven is the number of completion, the number of perfection, and the number that represents covenant. It is also the number belonging to Venus. Is it any wonder that today is going to be the biggest wedding day in history? Those who are to be married today are counting on 07-07-07 to secure their marital bliss.

As seven is also the number of good fortune, gamblers are banking on today to be their lucky day. Vegas is expecting the biggest weekend ever and even hotels in and around Tunica, Mississippi, are sold out.

To segue from the ridiculous to the sublime, the Biblical references to the number seven are legion, beginning in the second chapter of Genesis ("And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made" 2:2) and continuing through to the Revelation of St John the Divine. In the book of Matthew, Christ admonishes his followers to forgive their transgressors not just seven times but seventy times seven. Given the religious and historical significance of the number seven, it is not surprising that Christians from across American will gather today at the Titans stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, for a day of prayer and fasting.

Today in Lisbon, Portugal, the new seven wonders of the world will be announced. And, speaking of the world, NBC will broadcast  Live Earth:Concerts for a Climate in Crisis beginning tonight at the auspicious hour of 7 P.M. Central Daylight Time.

In the same "save the earth" vein, but unrelated to the number seven, last night  Bill Moyers conducted an interview on PBS with E. O. Wilson, renowned scientist and prolific author from Harvard. Wilson, a highly respected naturalist and ardent environmentalist, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and spent much of his youth in the Mobile area.

And last but by no means least, it was rumored that the final and seventh book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, would be released today, July 7, 2007.  As one would expect, J. K. Rowling has a special affinity for the number seven, sprinkling it like an exotic spice throughout the Harry Potter series. Check out the Harry Potter Lexicon for a nearly exhaustive list of the occurrence of the number seven.

The actual release date of the seventh book will be July 21.  I am eagerly awaiting my copy---pre-ordered, of course, when I placed my order for the new Einstein biography by Walter Isaacson, a book I cannot praise highly enough. 


So if you are getting married, risking it all "on one turn of pitch-and-toss," praying for peace, or helping to save the earth, I hope today is YOUR lucky day! 

---Penne J. Laubenthal

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