People are having fun with a date overrun with the number one.
- 11-11-11
A lineup of digits at 11 minutes past the 11th hour on 11/11/2011 marks a moment that won’t repeat for 100 years.
Windsor, Wis., twins Betsy and Katie Overman will blow out 11 candles each and open 11 gifts on their 11th birthday on the 11th day of the 11th month, 11 years into the 21st century, today.
Matchmaker Steve Ward will perform 11 wedding ceremonies and observe a moment of silence for veterans at 11:11 a.m. at the Crowne Plaza Times Square Hotel in New York.
Tania Gabrielle is a practitioner of numerology in Los Angeles. She says the date is a good time to start money-making ventures or relationships.
Why’s that? The number one signifies a beginning, she says. Double ones are like a doorway, and 11/11/11 is like three doorways — extra powerful.
“If you envision that doorway and walk through in triplicate on that same day, you can imagine what you want and achieve it in a more potent and imaginative way,” Gabrielle says.
Eric Carlson is a man of science. The physics professor at Wake Forest University says people are attracted to repetitive numbers because “our brains are just pattern-matching machines.”
“If you happen to glance at the clock and it’s 11:11, you will remember that,” Carlson says. “But I don’t think there is any mystical significance to it.”
Tell that to the brides. In Las Vegas, 3,200 marriage licenses were awaiting pickup Thursday, three times more than normal, said Clark County clerk Diana Alba. There’s been nothing like it since 7/7/2007; 4,333 licenses that week.
At the Little Church of the West chapel in Las Vegas, “every day is a big day, but (today) is like the Super Bowl,” says owner Greg Smith — 150 weddings vs. the usual 10 or 12.
Betsy and Katie’s mother, Julie Overman, says 11 was her sister’s favorite number as a child. “I’m not convinced there’s anything magical to it,” she says, “but the meaning my daughters have given it has made it magical.”
Contributing: Britt Kennerly, Florida Today
