A special day ‘two’ say ‘I do’

Winner: Xu Mengtao of China showing off the women’s aerials gold medal she won at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. — Reuters

IT was a day full of love on Feb 22, 2022.

Not only was it the western ‘Twosday’, it was also the 22nd day of the first month on the Lunar Calendar and, coincidentally, on a Tuesday.

This means the day has nine “2s”.

Such a special occasion occurred for the first time and it is commonly believed that it would not happen again.

In Chinese culture, the number two symbolises balance and harmony because it is believed all good things come in pairs while number 9 is the highest single-digit number.

In the ancient times, only the emperors could wear an outfit embroidered with nine dragons.

So, Feb 22 this year is particularly special and auspicious as “a day full of love” because the digit two, pronounces as er, sounds like love (ai).

This is perhaps the best day to say “I do”.

In Beijing, more than 4,700 couples registered their marriages, prompting the registrar offices to open an hour earlier and only close after all tasks were completed.

In Zhengzhou city in Henan province, a man was spotted covering himself in a thick blanket while queueing up in the freezing winter weather, when the temperature was just 5°C.

“I came at 5.20am but there are many people earlier than me,” he said.

The man, who refused to be identified, said he did not want to miss the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to wed his girlfriend of nine years on the auspicious day.

In Guangzhou city of the southern Guangdong province, nearly 1,700 pairs of lovebirds took their marriage vows – the highest daily number recorded in five years.

Chinese skier Xu Mengtao, who bagged a gold and a silver at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, announced her romance with fellow freestyle skier Wang Xindi.

Apart from the western Valentine’s Day (Feb 14), May 20 is another popular date which will see more couples getting married because the numbers 520 sound like wo ai ni (I love you).

Last week, social media platforms were bombarded with wedding pictures and congratulatory messages.

But not all were in joyful mood.

A netizen said it was the saddest day in his life.

“For others, 20220222 (year-month-day is the Chinese’s format of writing a date) is full of happiness but mine is filled with sorrows, I have just separated with my lover, Happy Break-up to me,” he wrote.

Another Internet user said the boyfriend of a neighbour died of cancer on that day.

“She accompanied her boyfriend to fight the disease for over a year. She was strong, she broke down sometimes but cheered herself up again, why can’t two people who were deeply in love be together a little longer?” she wrote.

At the Red Cross Society of Qingdao city in the eastern Shandong province, army veteran Wang Yiguo, 76, and his wife Han Yumei, 74, pledged to donate their bodies to science. It was also the 50th anniversary of their marriage.

Another couple who made a similar pledge was Feng Jing and Yuan Jingwen, both born in the 1990s.

They learned from news reports last year that five people, upon recovering from the Covid-19 disease, had decided to donate their bodies to science.

“We were touched by their good deeds, so we did some research online to understand the process and related issues,” said Feng.

Before this, the couple was at the marriage registrar.

“There were too many people, we waited from 8am to 11.30am to get the marriage certificates,” Feng revealed.

The number two also has a negative meaning in China. It usually used to make fun of people, who are often reckless or silly. Why two is used in such a way could not be traced.

Some said it is derived from Henan dialect er dan (two eggs) and others believed it is the short form of saying er bai wu (two hundred and fifty), a sarcastic term that is said to have been made popular by the movie, The Fool, at Chenghuang Temple.

In the 1913 film, rural farmer Er Baiwu created many funny scenes when he went to town for the first time.

Folklore has it that the term was first used during the Warring States period (475–221 BC) when four people came forward to claim the 1,000 taels of gold offered by the Qi kingdom’s emperor for murdering an official.

When asked how they would split the reward, they suggested that each of them get 250 taels.

The emperor then ordered for them to be executed by saying: “Kill the four 250s.”