Seven Years Didn't Use To Go By That Fast

 

Mystical 7 is a pretty interesting number.  Mathematically, it's the only number that can't be divided into the 360 degrees of a circle.  So is that what made humans decide it was powerful, and assign it all kinds of significance since time immemorial?  For the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians, there were seven planets.  The Hebrews made oaths with seven lambs; Arabians made oaths with seven stones.  Christians like seven so much they put it all over the place: seven days in Creation, seven deadly sins, seven sacraments, seven divisions of the Lord's prayer.  For Jews, the biggest holidays last seven days, purifications do too -- and offerings at altars were in sevens.  Elijah sent his servant to look for rain seven times.  Pharaoh's dream saw seven years for each of his wives.  Seven priests with seven trumpets marched around Jericho each day, and seven times on the seventh day.  There were seven Kings of Rome.  Seven locks of Samson's hair were cut off on the seventh day of his wedding feast.  In Islam, there are seven heavens.  There are seven promises in a Hindu wedding ceremony.  And seven notes in a major scale.  In British folklore, the Queen of the Faeries pays a tithe to Hell every seven years.  The Irish folk hero Cuchulainn has seven fingers on each hand, seven toes on each foot, and seven pupils in each eye.  There are seven liberal arts.  Seven sages of the bamboo grove in China.  Seven names of God.  Seven wonders of the world.  Seven seas.  Seven sisters.  Seven chakras.  But my favorite seven is in the ocean: every seventh wave is larger than the rest.  And you know of course what Sting said about that. "Love is the seventh wave".

So yeah, it's bound to be a magical year.  Unless you believe in the seven-year itch.