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BEIJING: Tens of thousands of Chinese were rushing to get married on Wednesday, hoping that the 09/09/09 date would bring longevity to their weddings and lives.
Besides meaning "nine, nine", "jiu, jiu" in Chinese also means "for a long time," thus making Wednesday an auspicious day to get married.
The fact that another nine is added for 2009 has only made the day luckier in the world's most populous nation, state press reported.
"We were going to get married in March, but when we looked at the calendar and saw September 9, we changed our minds," a young man surnamed Yang said on Beijing television as he queued at a local marriage office.
"We have been waiting in line all night," he said as his bride-to-be held his hand and smiled.
In Beijing alone, 18,979 couples queued, beating the previous one-day record of 15,646 set on August 8, 2008, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The number eight is also traditionally considered lucky.
"What a good day it is! We are very lucky that we get married today. The auspicious number stands for our eternal love," Zhang Peng told Xinhua, as he lined up with his girlfriend at a registry office in the southwestern city of Chengdu.
Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 couples had made advanced bookings in the country's biggest city Shanghai, said the China News Service.
In the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, more than 6,100 couples had registered in advance to marry on Wednesday, while numerous large Chinese cities each reported totals of at least 2,000 couples, the report said.
Officials were expecting many more newlyweds-to-be to crowd into marriage offices than those who had pre-registered, it said.
The number tying the knot in China was expected to surpass the 314,224 couples who married on August 8, 2008, Xinhua said.
In Malaysia, over 500 couples tied the knot at a Buddhist temple on Wednesday, in a mass wedding held on the auspicious "999" date which signifies hopes for a long-lasting marriage.
"I chose this date '999' as it signifies everlasting love," construction supervisor Thomas Wong, 30, said as his new bride, 25-year-old accountant Ivy Tan, stood by his side.
"I hope to give my wife a memorable wedding, it's once in a lifetime we get these auspicious numbers," he told AFP at the Thean Hou temple in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
A spokesman at the temple said the last biggest mass wedding was on August 8 last year, or '888' which is also deemed good luck in Chinese numerology as '8' can mean "prosperous".
"We had 470 couples then and this year we have 556 -- I believe this is the largest mass wedding in the country so far," organiser Kong Cher Peng said.
- AFP/ir
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