OLYMPICS/ Culture
Thousands of Beijing couples go for Olympic gold
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-09 13:53
BEIJING - More than 3,000 couples tied the knot exactly a year before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, hoping some of the auspicious "eighth of the eighth" luck would rub off on them as the city started its Games countdown.
A newly married couple pose for a photograph in front of a countdown clock to the Beijing Olympics in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, yesterday. More than 50 couples tied the knot yesterday to mark the one-year countdown.
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According to city government figures, 3,390 couples registered their marriages with local justices on Wednesday, which was the start of autumn in the lunar calendar and already considered an ideal date for marriage.
But the day was given extra significance as Beijing began its Olympic countdown with a dazzling song-and-dance performance in front of Tiananmen.
Olympic chief Jacques Rogge and Chinese political leaders watched a countdown clock run down to 366 days - 2008 is a leap year.
The Games will start at 8:00 pm on the eighth day of the eighth month, an auspicious date and time.
In Cantonese, "eight" (baat) is considered lucky as it sounds like the word for wealth and fortune (faat).
The oldest to tie the knot were both aged 80.
For many Chinese, the holding of the Olympics is a dream come true.
"Thirty years ago, we would never have thought that we could host such an event," said one pensioner, wiping make-up from her face after taking part in a display of traditional folk dancing in a Beijing park.
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