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Saturday was a special day in Iceland – the date formed the string of numbers 7.9.13, which are considered lucky numbers. This article from Vísir draws on material from Vísindavefurinn, and looks at the history of some of these numbers, which are considered lucky or unlucky depending on the culture.
For anyone who might be confused, dates in Iceland and much of the world are in day-month-year format, rather than month-day-year as is common in the U.S. 🙂
Í dag er sjö, níu, þrettán
Today is 7.9.13
Í dag er 7. september sem er kannski neitt sérstaklega merkilegt nema fyrir þær sakir að árið er 2013. Það gerir dagsetninguna: 7.9.13 sem af mörgum eru taldar happatölur.
Today is September 7th, which is perhaps nothing especially remarkable except for the fact that the year is 2013. That makes the date: 7.9.13, which among many are considered lucky numbers.
The word sök has several different uses. It is perhaps more often encountered in its meaning of accusation or criminal charge, when assigning fault or blame. Here its other meaning is seen, having to do with reasons or circumstances (sakir þess að … because …).
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En hvað er svona merkilegt við þessar tölur? Og afhverju telur fólk þær upp þegar bankað er í við? Á Vísindavef Háskóla Íslands segir að tilheyri þjóðtrúnni. Í rauninni sé talan þrír einhver mesta happatala sem sögur fara af og því ætti hún vel heima í talnaþulunni. En tölurnar eru þrjár og þrisvar sinnum þrír eru níu svo að sú tala þykir enn magnaðari en talan þrír eins og sér.
But what is so special about these numbers? And why do some people say them when they knock on wood? At the Icelandic Web of Science it is said to be part of folk belief. In fact, the number 3 is considered the luckiest number and thus would well at home in the list of numbers. But there are three numbers, and three times three is nine, so that number is considered more powerful than three by itself.
It was kind of funny seeing the phrase hvað er svona merkilegt við, since I just heard it in an Elín Ey song last week 🙂
I was actually confused for a bit until I figured out banka í við was knock on wood. You also see að banka used for knocking on doors (banka á dyr).
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Talan sjö hefur einnig lengi verið talin sérstök heillatala. Hún er samansett úr tölunni þrír annars vegar, sem er tala heilagrar þrenningar, tákni himinsins og tölunni fjórum, sú tala myndar ferninginn sem er tákn jarðarinnar. Saman mynda þær tölu alheimsins, himins og jarðar, töluna sjö.
The number 7 has also long been considered a special number. It is composed of the number 3 on the one hand, which is the number of the holy trinity, symbol of the heavens, and of the number 4, which forms the square, symbol of the earth. Together they form the number of the universe, of heaven and earth, the number 7.
The article uses happatala to mean lucky number, but here I think is another word for it, heillatala. I believe it comes from heill (luck, happiness).
When I was looking at samansett I kept thinking there was a corresponding verb, but then I realized that while the adjective (or past participle) form comes from the verb, when the verb uses a preposition it often gets prepended to the adjective form. So að setja saman means to put together, assemble, but the adjective to describe such a thing becomes samansettur.
Talan níu er almennt álitin heilltala og kemur víð við í sögu í þjóðtrú. Einnig er veigamikið atriði að meðgöngutími barna er níu mánuðir. Auk þess hefur talan níu stærðfræðilega sérstöðu, það er sama með hvaða tölu hún er margfölduð, þversumma útkomunnar eða þversumman af þversummunni, verður alltaf níu.
The number 9 is commonly regarded as a lucky number and found often in folk stories. It is also a significant point that the gestation period for a child is nine months. In addition the number 9 has a special mathematical status in that whatever number it is multiplied by, the sum of the resulting digits, or the sum of that sum is always nine.
The adjective veiga·mikill (and its opposite veiga·lítill) come from veigur, which has a meaning similar to strength or power. So it is emphasizing (or deemphasizing) the amount of whatever you are talking about, here atriði.
The words staða and staður look similar, don’t confuse them:
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Töluna þrettán þekkja flestir sem óheillatölu. Sú trú að þessi tala sé sérstök, annað hvort hættuleg eða heilög, er talin mjög gömul. Hugsanlega má rekja ótrúna á töluna þrettán allt aftur til Súmera. Þeir bættu við þrettánda mánuðinum sjötta hvert ár. Talan var sérstök aukatala til að leiðrétta þá skekkju sem varð þegar gengið var út frá grunneiningum í sextugakerfinu.
Most know the number 13 as being unlucky. The belief that this number is special, either dangerous or sacred, is thought to be very old. One could conceivably trace the distrust of the number thirteen all the way back to Sumeria. They added a 13th month every seven years. The number was a special increment to correct the deviation that occurred from using a base sixty system.
sök f reason viður m wood, lumber heill f luck, happiness, success heilagur adj holy, sacred ferningur m square veiga·mikill adj weighty, important, significant atriði n point, item meðgöngu·tími m gestation period sérstaða f special status, unique position þver·summa f sum of digits that make up a number út·koma f result, outcome; sum ó·trú f distrust skekkja f deviation; mistake, error grunnur m foundation, base eining f unit