Today - 08-08-08 - is the opening day of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing, China. China is 12 hours ahead of EST - Eastern standard time (The East cost of North America) - so the opening ceremony was shown live on TV in Ontario, Canada this morning. I was lucky enough to be able to watch the Parade of Nations, and then later to see the Torch entering the stadium and the Olympic torch being lit, before I had to leave for school.
I'm sure, like everyone else, we were all confused by the non-alphabetical order of entry by the countries. According to my research, the nations entered the stadium according to the number of strokes required to write that country's name in Chinese. The exception to this rule was Greece at the beginning (Greece always leads the Parade of Nations in any Olympics, with the host nation entering the stadium last) and China at the end. The Chinese are big on numerology and lucky numbers. That is why the Olympics opened on this date. The number 8 is considered to be a very lucky number.
Today is also Princess Beatrice's Birthday. I can still remember when she was born. 8-8-88. The eldest daughter of Fergie (Sarah Ferguson) and Prince Andrew was born August 8, 1988 in London, UK. Today she turned 20 years old.
Yesterday was the first anniversary of my mother-in-laws passing. It's in my blog that she passed away on August 7, last year.
And finally tomorrow (August 9th, 1988) is the 20th anniversary of the biggest and most controversial hockey trade of all. When the King of Canadian Hockey - Wayne Gretsky - was traded to the Los Angeles Kings from the Edmonton Oilers.
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It was a bit strange seeing the order that all the countries came out in wasn't it! The rest of the ceremony was spectacular! And now the games have begun.
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