WHY IS 8 LUCKY IN CHINESE CULTURE?

The number 8 is considered the luckiest of numbers in China and they believe the more 8’s the better. The Cantonese word for eight, which is pronounced “ba”, sounds similar to the word which means “prosper” or “wealth”. In regional dialects the words for “eight” and “fortune” are also similar. The word is also phonetically similar to the word for a hundred (pronounced “baak”), which they believe for greater wealth. Note as well, this particular symbol matches the mathematical symbol of infinity. So just how much do the Chinese love the lucky number 8? Well we’ve got some crazy examples:

  • A Hangzhou man placed his license plate for sale which read A88888. How much did he want for his lucky 8 plate? A cool ¥1.12 million (roughly AU$219,000).
  • A telephone number with all digits being eights was sold for ¥2.33 million (about AU$450,000) to Sichuan Airlines in Chengdu, China.
    The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Beijing began on 080/8/2008 at 8 seconds and 8 minutes past 8 pm local time (UTC+08).
  • Also by pure luck, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore use the time zone UTC+08:00.
  • Singapore Airlines and SriLankan Airlines both reserve flight numbers beginning with the number 8 to routes in China.
  • Boeing delivered their 8,888th 737 built to Xiamen Airlines. The Next-Generation 737-800, features a special livery commemorating the airplane’s significance.

    LUCKY 8s in SPORT

    Kobe Bryant – Basketball
    The Los Angeles Lakers star who’s considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time started his career wearing the number 8 and won two championships in the lucky 8. In 2006 however he decided to change to his high school number, 24.

    Patty Mills/Matthew Dellavedova- Basketball
    It seems Australians also have a love for the lucky 8 as not one but two Boomers donning the number for their respective NBA teams and both have won championships with it. Patty Mills wears #8 for the San Antonio Spurs while Matthew Dellavedova wore #8 when the Cleveland Caviliers won their title in 2016 before taking the same number to his new team the following season, the Milwaukee Bucks.
    Yogi Berra – Baseball
    When it comes to a lucky 8 player, few have had more than Yankees legend Yogi Berra who playe for the team between 1946 and 1963. The late great catcher won the World Series no less than 10 times, no other Major League Baseball player has more. He also won the MVP title three times, a record only five players in history has achieved. He then went on to coach the New York Mets after his playing days before reuniting with the Yankees in 1983. Berra’s lucky 8 jersey was retired by the Yankees in 1972.

    Dale Earnhardt- NASCAR
    When it comes to numbers, few sports take them more seriously than the drivers and teams of American stock car racing. NASCAR’s most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr (son of the sport’s legend the late Dale Earnhardt), for years had the lucky 8 on the side of his car. But Earnhardt ended up leaving the team owned by his step mother and wanted to bring the number with him to his new team Hendrick Motorsports. Well Teresa Earnhardt was having none of that despite Dale Jr choosing the #8 because his grandfather, Ralph Earnhardt, used that number. So instead he’s had to settle for No. 88.
    Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup – V8 Supercars
    Back home in Australian racing the number 8 has had plenty of luck as well with British racing team 888 Racing winning multiple championships thanks to Jamie Whincup who has #88 on his car (he changed to number 1 for years following his championship win as is tradition in the sport). The team’s other driver Craig Lowndes wears #888 and has won the famous Bathurst 1000 five times with that number.

    Romain Grosjean – Formula 1
    In 2015 Formula 1 brought back number choosing for drivers (previously it was ordered by team’s placings in the championship the previous season) and lucky #8 was chosen by French driver Romain Grosjean. Eight is a very special number for him, because his wife’s birthday is on December the 8th and they also met each other in 2008.

    8 Facts AROUND THE WORLD

     

  • In computer terms, a ‘byte’ is made up of 8 bits. A ‘bit’ is either a 1 or 0.
  • A number is divisible by 8 if its last 3 digits, when written in decimal, are also divisible by 8 (we bet you’re pulling the calculator app out right now to test this!).
  • A polygon with eight sides is known an octagon
  • Like most of our numbers, the modern 8 symbol evolved with the system. The Brahmi numeral for eight by the 1st century AD was written in one stroke as a curve └┐ looking like an uppercase H with the bottom half of the left line and the upper half of the right line removed.
  • Since Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet on August 24, 2006, our Solar System has eight bodies orbiting the Sun which we consider to be planets.
  • 8 is the atomic number for the element oxygen.
  • All spiders, and more generally all arachnids, have eight legs. While the octopus and its cephalopod relatives in genus Argonauta have eight arms (tentacles).
  • The number eight is one loved by Australian and American rev heads with the eight-cylinder known as a ‘V8’. A V8 motor is an internal combustion engine with eight cylinders configured in two banks (rows) of four which are laid out in a “V” formation.
  • One for Gen Yers, the number eight written in parentheses was the code for the musical note in Windows Live Messenger.
  • There are eight furlongs in a mile.
  • The Dharmacakra, a Buddhist symbol, has eight spokes. The Buddha’s principal teaching—the Four Noble Truths—ramifies as the Noble Eightfold Path and the Buddha emphasizes the importance of the eight attainments or jhanas.
  • Eight is also very important in Jewish culture with the rite of brit milah (commonly known as circumcision) is held on a baby boy’s eighth day of life and Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish holiday that starts on the 25th day of Kislev

    NUMBER 8 IN RELIGION


     

  • According to the Bible, there were eight human beings – including Noah – on board the ark.
  • In Islam, eight is the number of angels carrying the throne of Allah in heaven as well as the number of gates in heaven according to the Koran.
  • The Eight Immortals (Chinese: 八仙; pinyin: Bāxiān; Wade–Giles: Pa¹-hsien¹) are a group of legendary xian (“immortals”) in Chinese mythology. Each immortal’s power can be transferred to a power tool (法器) that can bestow life or destroy evil. Together, these eight tools are called the “Covert Eight Immortals”
  • In Scientology there are 8 dynamics of existence
  • In astrology, Scorpio is the 8th astrological sign of the Zodiac.

    NUMBER 8 IN POP CULTURE


     

  • There have been a number of Hollywood movies titled with the number eight including 8 Mile staring rap singer Eminem, 8mm staring Nicolas Cage and Eight Below with Paul Walker.
  • The number 8 is often used within words and number plates to denote the “ate” sylabal. Avril Lavigne’s song did this in her song titled “Sk8er Boi”. Words such as “mate” and “hate” are often written in SMS messaging as “m8” and “h8”.
  • “Section 8” is common in U.S. slang for “crazy” or “insane”. This is due to the US military’s Section 8 discharge which is handed to any mentally unfit personnel.

    NUMBER 88

     

  • In Japanese, often used to mean “a great many” or “countless” or infinite numbers.
  • In Chinese SMS or chat, short for “byebye”, from the Mandarin pronunciation “ba1 ba1” (8 – 8)
  • Australia was settled by English settlers in 1788 and babies born in 1988 are known as “bicentennial babies” and were given certificates with their birth certificates by the Australian Government.

    LANTERN CLUB’S LUCKY 8’s


    Our amazing new promotion Lucky 8’s is here! On Wednesday 31 May it will be the start of the bi-weekly (Wednesday and Sundays) draws where not one, but five lucky members will be called up to spin for the jackpot prize each draw night which can reach up toe $25,088!
    For more info on Lucky 8’s and how to start earning and redeeming tickets, click here.