07-07-07: It was not just my birthday!

There was a lot of media hype about 07-07-07- One of my friends started addressing me as James Bond 007- just because I was going to be part of history on 07-07-07. I decided to find out what the day will have in store for me pro-actively. I surfed the web on 6th night & decided to ask a Tarot Reader about what does she see for me on 07-07-07? She promptly sent me my own Sara Freder's clairvoyance horoscope for my birthday-
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU" It's useless to hide it to you longer Gautam, This new year which started for you will be for you an exceptionnal year of luck in everything, a year of happiness, love and money, a year where all your most crazy dreams could now really happen. I even see for you next month a very important gain of money of several thousand dollars, and I also see coming the happiness that you thought was lost. Thinking about your particular case Gautam, I'm telling in myself that the life has really been too unfair with you until now and I'm also telling in myself that it might be the time to change all of this especially because it is an important transitional period of your life.
So that's for you the beginning of a new cycle and the coming of new chances in your life
I have the intimate certainty.
It's really the first time of my life that I see that in a so clear and so precise way.
According to this clairvoyance you should have luck in everything, and more especially in the most important domain for you as: family, relations, love, money."
She wanted 15 dollars to tell me more, but I decided naa... let me first check out the first day 07-07-07 and see what changes today for me.
Long ago, before early people had a way of marking time, little attention was paid to a person's birthday. Even though everyone knew that people grew older, they had no way of correctly keeping track of time. It wasn't until the early people learned more about how time passed that they kept note about time changes and developed a calendar and began to celebrate special events such as birthdays. When birthdays were first starting to be celebrated, they were only held in honor of prominent men in a country. Unlike times of today, "common" people (like me for example) rarely celebrated their birthdays during the early days. Today, young and old alike all around the world celebrate birthdays. Many countries have different customs from ours for celebrating birthdays but at the same time there are a lot that celebrate their birthdays in quite similar ways as we do. Some of the countries that are very similar to India include Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Srilanka, and Laos and here there is usually a small “puja” or visit to the temple and/or distribution of food at monasteries or orphanages.
Aside from the different customs around the world, the reasons why we celebrate birthdays and the different symbols we use are very much the same to everyone. The reason why we have birthday parties goes back to when people believed that good and evil spirits appeared when a child was born and influenced that child for life. These people also believed that it was dangerous for a person to have a change in his or her life. This led people to believe that birthdays were filled with danger since each year marked a change in a person's life. These beliefs brought about the custom of having birthday parties. They believed that surrounding the birthday person with friends, family and good wishes would scare the evil spirits away. It was an especially good influence if the well-wishers presented gifts along with their wishes. There would also be greater protection from the evil spirits if the gifts and wishes were presented early in the day. Credit is given to the Germans
for starting celebrations of children's birthdays (kinderfeste). The custom of putting candles on birthday cake started in Germany about 200 years ago. Germans were known to be excellent candle makers. One day they began to make little tiny candles and started the tradition of putting the candles on the cake. It was also decided by these candle makers that it meant good luck if you could blow out all the candles on your cake in one blow.
About 100 years ago, Mildred Hill and Patty Hill of America wrote the song, "Happy Birthday to You". This song was a huge hit all over the world. It is used in many different countries with a few modifications.
Have you every received a card for your birthday? The custom of making birthday cards started in England about 100 years ago. Now people everywhere make birthday cards and send them to friends and family to wish them a happy birthday.
For one who has admittedly never been good at math, I continue to be fascinated with the connotation of numbers and the significance they have in the world around us. Aside from numbers being the very foundation of science, all of us non-rocket scientists use numbers on a daily basis to comprehend the time, the date, the calories we consume, the paycheck we depend on, the votes we need, the spam mail we get, the number of children suffering from malnutrition or obesity, etc. Without numbers our world as we know it would be reduced to nothingness.
This constant preoccupation with numbers has led me to believe that no other number seems to have a stronger presence in our lives than the number seven and not just because I was born on the 7th of July. Those superstitious types who freaked out last year when the calendar read 06/06/06 will have something to smile about on the 7th day of the 7th month, 2007. Believing the triple appearance of the number 7 will bring luck, many people are planning important events for this first Saturday in July. Brides and grooms, especially, looking for a little extra dose of marital fortune, are flocking to the altar in droves on 07/07/07, according to wedding watchers.
The number seven is considered lucky due to its frequent and favorable appearance in the Bible, say historians.
"As the number of the days of God's first week, of the levels of heaven...of the numbers of angels and trumpets, etc., the number came in the last few centuries BC to represent divine perfection," said David Frankfurter, professor of religious studies and history at the University of New Hampshire. "Something organized seven-fold meant that it corresponded to God's own arrangement."
Lucky numbers also vary from culture to culture, proving, skeptics say, that coincidental connections between an event and the influence of a number can always be found if you're looking hard enough, no matter what the digit. Chinese culture, for example, associates "degrees" of luck according to how a number is pronounced. Eight, whose Chinese name rhymes with the words for prosperity and wealth, is considered particularly auspicious. The Beijing Olympics, as a result, will open next year at 8 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2008.
Oh, and many Chinese consider 7 a very unlucky number associated with death. Don’t tell the brides.
The Sanskrit word 'sapta' refers to number seven. The Indian Music has 'sapta swaras', means seven octats (sa re ga ma pa dha ni), which are basics of music, using which hundreds of Ragas are composed. The Month 'September' is evolved from the word 'septa' meaning seven. September was earlier seventh month before July and August were added to the calendar. Also the subsequent months names are derived from Sanskrit names 'Ashta' and 'Nava' meaning eight and nine which are now called October and November. Celestial group of seven stars are named as 'Sapta Rishi' based on the seven great saints.
Almost all occurrences of the number seven represent perfection and completeness. It is the most dominant number in religion, literature, music, nature and one of the most unusual numbers in math. The list is endless, but here are the most familiar and most important examples. In nature, the most significant presence of seven is in the colors of the rainbow or the refraction of a beam of white light through a prism which generates a spectrum of seven colors. Although it can be argued that these colors are actually thousands of different shades gradually merging into one another, our eyes naturally sort them into these seven groups:
-- Red
-- Orange
-- Yellow
-- Green
-- Blue
-- Indigo
-- Violet
The seven day week is used internationally, and it is said that each day is named after the seven visible planets and luminaries and moving objects in the sky:
-- Monday (Moon)
-- Tuesday (Mercury)
-- Wednesday (Venus)
-- Thursday (Mars)
-- Friday (Jupiter)
-- Saturday (Saturn)
-- Sunday (Sun)
In Hebrew, seven is shevah, meaning "to be full or satisfied, have enough of", and it is believed that on the seventh day God rested from the work of Creation. Hence the word (Shavath), to cease, desist, rest, and Shabbath, Sabbath, or day of rest. This root runs through various languages; e.g., Sanskrit, (saptah); Zend- Avesta., (hapta); Greek, (hepta); Persian, (haft); Latin, (septem). All these preserve the "t," which in the Semitic and Teutonic languages is dropped out; e.g. Gothic,(sibun); Germ., (sieben); Eng., (seven).
 
In Judaism, we also have the Seven universal rules of Noah (Talmud Sanh.56a):
-- Prohibition of idolatry
-- Prohibition of blasphemy
-- Prohibition of murder
-- Prohibition of theft
-- Prohibition of illicit relations
-- Prohibition of eating live meat
-- Prohibition of failing to establish courts of justice

Among religions, Christianity is riddled with the number seven. The Bible is full of references to the number seven, as in the Seven Parables of Matthew 13.In the Book of Revelation, there are seven churches, seven spirits, seven stars, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven vials, seven personages, and seven dooms. There are Seven generations from David to Jesus. The beast that rises out of the sea to destroy the world mentioned in Revelations also has seven heads, and its number is 666, which is the sum of the squares of the first 7 primes:
666 = 22 + 32 + 52 + 72 + 112 + 132 + 172
But most importantly in Christianity there are the seven deadly sins:
-- Vanity
-- Envy
-- Gluttony
-- Lust
-- Wrath
-- Covetousness
-- Sloth

There are Seven Devas of the Hindu pantheon, and the Seven Chakras of Tantric Hinduism are:
-- Crown Chakra Sehasara, located at top of head
-- Brow Chakra Anja, located in center of forehead above eyes
-- Throat Chakra Visshuda , located at base of throat
-- Heart Chakra Anahatha ,located at heart center of chest
-- Solar Plexis Chakra Manipura ,located between the sternum bone and the belly 
-- Sacral Chakra, Svadistana,Located at sex organs or near belly button
-- Root Chakra, Muladhara, Kundalini ,located at the tailbone base of spine

In Zoroastrianism , there are the Seven Amschaspands:
-- Ordibehesht
-- Khordad
-- Amordad
-- Shahrivar
-- Bahman
-- Espandasmad
-- Ahooramazda

In Islam, muslim pilgrims on "Haj" or their pilgrimage trip to Mecca, arrive by the seventh day of "Zuu- ul Hijja" (by Islamic celestial calendar), do the "Tavaf" and circle the "Kabeh" seven times , and do the "Saay" or run between the hills of "Safa" and "Marva" for seven times.
Rome, it is said, was built on seven hills, and The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were:
--The Great Pyramid of Giza 
-- The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
-- The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
-- The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
-- The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
-- The Colossus of Rhodes
-- The Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Seven Continents are:
-- Africa
-- Antarctica 
-- Asia
-- Australia
-- Europe
-- North America
-- South America

The Seven Seas are:
-- North Atlantic
-- South Atlantic
-- North Pacific
-- South Pacific
-- Indian
-- Antarctic
-- Arctic

Seven is probably the most important number in Greek Literature and mythology:
-- Seven Labors of Hercules
-- Seven daughters of Atlas in the Pleiades
-- Seven gates of Thebes
-- Seven sons and seven daughters of Niobe
-- Seven strings of the lyre of Zeus
-- Seven spheres

You can keep going on and on , for example an old wives' tale says that if you break a mirror you will have seven years of bad luck, or how to avoid the Seven year itch in Marriage, or why first graders are sent off to start school when they are seven years old. The examples are numerous and too many to list in one place. Hopefully these few examples won't keep you awake at night and make you lose your required seven hours of sleep.

The results of the first-ever online global vote were announced at the Official New7Wonders Declaration Ceremony tonight in Lisbon, Portugal.

Well, for me, I had a usual day at the clinic...I had a "havan" in the morning and reached the clinic 30 minutes late. My associate was not feeling up to it and decided to take the day off- I finished the patients by 1pm and came home. Had my first afternoon nap in 7 days. Wifes away for a fellowship. Provided for the kids and took my dad out for a wonderful dinner at the Masala Bay. Came back. Blogged & planning to complete my book chapter for the upcoming monograph - "Embryo Transfer". Psst... no divine intervention as yet for me on 07-07-07. Maybe I will have to pay the online Tarot lady her USD 15 to have my shower of good luck this year. Amen.