[above: Joceyln Sim and Johann Ostroot kiss for the first time as wife and husband at the Old County Courthouse.]The Orange County Register is reporting that September 9, 2009, saw a spike in weddings performed at the Old County Courthouse in Santa Ana:
I'll say one thing, it would certainly make it easier to remember your anniversary. Smart thinking, guys! When I eventually get married, I'm going to do it on my birthday. Or Christmas. But not Independence Day; the irony would depress me.
"There won't be another 9-9-009 for another thousand years," said Dinh, a 50-year-old law student from Tustin, a few minutes before he exchanged rings – and a quick kiss – with Nguyen, 44, his sweetheart of four years. "This is a once-in-a-millennium event."
By the time the last vows were said Wednesday, 138 couples had left county offices as new husbands and wives. That was nearly five times as many civil ceremonies as the county would perform on a more ordinary September day, according to the county Clerk-Recorder’s Office.
The county's deputy marriage commissioners are used to crowded schedules on days when the numbers line up just right. On 7-7-07, for example, they performed 156 weddings – even though it was a Saturday. On 8-8-08, a date considered especially lucky, they married 250 couples.
[above: Chau Nguyen and Michael Dinh also tie the knot. "Tie the knot," "ball and chain," "wedlock"... am I the only one who picks up on these things?]
They're saying that this jump is due especially due to "Asian beliefs" that 9 is lucky, almost homophonous with a Chinese character for forever. [Kushibo snickers]
I expected as much for last year's 8/8/08, knowing how propitious, auspicious, and delicious the number 8 is in the Sinological sphere. Once when I was visiting Hong Kong, the papers reported how an auction for a license plate bearing just a single number 8 had raked in hundreds of thousands of HKD for the government.
[above: I think these two vital services are placed dangerously close together. One innocent mistake and you've got the wrong life-altering consequences on your hands. I smell a sitcom.]
When Koreans come to this country, they are rapidly forc... errr... I mean gently proselytize into one of the many local Korean American churches where they are weaned away from such silly superstitions... Either that or the pastor finds out that a couple married at the county court and the whole congregation looks at them disapprovingly. Gossip is a bitch and the Koreans are great at it!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school and college I attended a "Chinese" church that was full of kyopo who were trying to escape that very phenomenon. They wanted a place to go and enjoy/practice their faith away from the burden of eyes prying into everything.
ReplyDeleteOf course the non-Chinese among the flock could sit back and watch the Chinese churchgoers do their kyopo-lite version of the same thing.