12/12/12

A few years ago, an American friend of mine invited me to a dinner party on 9/12/2005.  Although I couldn't understand why she had sent out the invitations so early, I replied that I would be unable to attend because December 9th was a Friday and I finished work at 9:30 pm. Funnily enough, September 9th 2005 was also a Friday but school started on Monday 12th and I would be able to attend in September! Today is,  undoubtedly, the last date consisting of identical figures and the last time American and European dates can't be confusing. At least, now I know that in American dates the first figure stands for the month, the second for the day and the third for the year.

According to the ancient Mayan calendar, 12/12/12  marks the end of times and the beginning of a new cycle of evolution for planet earth, humanity and the cosmos. To my mind, this is only  a one-time date in our lifetime and so far nothing dramatic has happened in my part of the world!

Here are  12 interesting facts about number 12:

1. According to Greek mythology, there were 12 Olympian gods.

2. Also according to Greek mythology, there are 12 labours of Hercules.

3. There are 12 days of Christmas. The Christmas song Twelve Days of Christmas came from the traditional practice of extending Yuletide celebration over the twelve days, from Christmas Day over to Epiphany Eve.

4. Force 12 on the Beaufort Wind Scale corresponds to the maximum wind force of a hurricane.

5. The human body has 12 cranial nerves.

6. Most calendar systems have 12 months in a year.

7. In English, twelve is the number of greatest magnitude that has just one syllable.

8. Both the Western and Chinese Zodiac have 12 signs.

9. A new day starts with the stroke of 12 midnight.

10. The number of function keys on most PC keyboards is 12 (F1-F12)

11. Twelfth Night is  a comedy by William Shakespeare.

12. There are 12 inches in a foot.

Information collected from Wikipedia

Comments

[Agnes]

I didn't even realize it was 12/12/12 today!

[Stefania]

Surely a unique date that occurs only once. This reminds me that there are 11 days left till Christmas and I haven't done my Christmas shopping yet!

[Christina]

My lucky number! Number 12 symbolizes completeness and forms a whole, a perfect and harmonious unit - always divided into four sets of three.

[Haruko N]

The Japanese dates are called nengō (年号) in Japanese. Recent eras correspond to the reigns of emperors. Previous eras do not correspond to reigns of emperors but to what were decided to be auspicious events.

[Jean-Paul Bouvier]

- Le calendrier maya (qui est encore plus précis que le nôtre) prend mystérieusement fin en cette date, et une apocalypse est prophétisée par les mayas en cette date.
- Le Yi-King prévoit aussi une catastrophe à cette date.
- Le logiciel Web bot qui analyse en permanence le web en vue de prévoir les cours de la bourse se révèle aller au delà de sa mission et prédit certains éléments de l'avenir en s'appuyant sur un inconscient collectif terrien et prévoit une catastrophe en cette date.
- Merlin l'enchanteur l'aurait prédit.
- L'Oracle de la Sybille l'aurait prédit.
- Les Amérindiens l'auraient prédit.
- L'alignement de la Terre sera en parfait avec le soleil et le centre de la galaxie de la voie lactée, ce phénomène galactique arrive une fois tous les 25.800 ans.

[Lakis Ioannou]

Football teams fans are sometimes referred to as the 12th man....even if my team APOEL loses.:-)