Many couples have planned years ahead to get married on July 7 of this year, hoping that the inherent luck in the dateline will guide their marriage for years to come, just like many people will be playing the lottery, hoping the lucky date will result in big winnings.
While one Rome couple in particular has planned to wed July 7, just as many others across the nation have, their take on the number seven’s luck is more particular — the prominent use of the number seven in the Bible.
“The Bible always refers to seven. Seven this, seven days, seven hours, seven minutes,” said Laura Patterson, who will be marrying Cory Stephens today.
According to TheKnot.com — one of the most popular wedding planning Web sites on the Internet — “In cultures and religions around the world, the number seven is recurring and almost always positive. In Chinese culture seven represents ‘togetherness,’ an appropriate notion for a newly married couple, and in Japanese mythology there are seven lucky gods, which personify earthly happiness. In Judaism God rested on the seventh day, and there are seven sacraments in Catholicism. Seven is a sacred proportion in Islam, and Buddha is said to have taken seven symbolic steps at birth.”
Of course, religious beliefs no doubt kept many from getting married on last year’s unusual date phenomenon on June 6, 2006.
Patterson and Stephens, who are both 22 years old and attend West Rome Baptist Church, have been planning to get married on July 7, 2007, for about four years, since they began dating as high school seniors, when Patterson attended Coosa High and Stephens attended Cedartown High.
Patterson said the decision came as a surprise to family and friends.
“People thought, ‘Well, that’s crazy,’” said Patterson.
Patterson, who recently graduated from the University of West Georgia, is a pre-K teacher at Pepperell Primary School, while Stephens works for Stephens Lawn Care and attends Coosa Valley Technical College.
While Patterson said she and Stephens decided to wed July 7 for mainly religious reasons, she sees other benefits to picking the particular date as well.
“Now he’ll never have an excuse to say ‘I don’t remember the exact date we got married,’” said Patterson.
The Georgia Lottery, which is in the luck business year-
round, made plans for today far in advance as well, booking the date as the drawing for their heavily marketed Millionaire Raffle game.
“We’re going to add some extra fun and excitement for Georgia on what we’re calling the luckiest day of the century,” said lottery spokesperson J.B. Landroche.
The lottery is marketing the millionaire raffle as the best odds ever of winning $1 million at one in 125,000, with four winners being selected.
Five other winners will win $100,000 each, and 500 winners will win $1,000.
Tickets went on sale April 15 and will continue to be sold until 2 p.m. today, leading up to the drawing, which is appropriately at — you guessed it — 7 p.m.
But while the lottery has made special plans for Saturday, the number seven is a big part of its day-to-day business.
“We offer several games that have the number seven in them, and in fact one of our most popular instant ticket games is a game called Lucky Sevens,” said Landroche. “It is in fact the longest running instant game ever at the Georgia Lottery.”
And you can bet some folks will be playing 7-7-7 in today’s Cash 3 drawing.
Just as Patterson and Stephens are betting on a life of marital happiness after their triple 7 wedding day today.
Click here to read a story about 7/7/7/ weddings on theknot.com.
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