ED SAID - Seven years, aren’t we lucky!

Though we’re not overly big on birthdays, this month signals the seventh year of The Mangawhai Focus, first published as a 12 page monthly paper in November 2005.

For us it’s just another year having passed but for many, the number seven is considered lucky for a variety of reasons depending on ones beliefs, creed or race. Why? We are not entirely certain but we did find a number special sevens which suggest significance more than any other number and surely greater than just coincidence. Many can be debated but they make interesting and thoughtful reading from the seven days of the week to seven digits in our local phone numbers and seven colours of the rainbow. To be the ‘seventh son of a seventh son’ was considered lucky but you would be ‘lucky’ to find such a man today.

For board game players, on dices all opposite sides add up to 7. 

There are Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Many lists have been compiled but why ‘7’?

There are seven levels of the sky: atmosphere, exosphere, lonosphere, thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere, troposphere. And there are seven levels of Heaven. Most religions name these differently but most common are: Rafi, Qaydum, Marum, Arfalun, Hay'oun, Arous, Ajma.

The human body consists of seven major parts; muscular system, skeletal system,  nervous system, digestive system, respiratory system, excretory system, circulatory system. 

God, the Bible says, created the Universe in 7 days. Thus 6 is the imperfect number which is why 666 is the devil’s number.

And here are seven more sevens: 

1. Pythagoreans called it the perfect number, 3 and 4, the triangle and the square, the perfect figures.

2. Seven ancient planets. The sun was the greatest planet of the ancient seven and next to the sun, the moon, changing in all its splendour every seventh day. Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

3. Books. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T E Lawrence, Enid Blyton's Secret Seven series, Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Reiki and the Seven Chakras, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs…

4. The Seven Deadly Sins.

5. The Trumpton Fire Brigade, a children’s TV series that began in the 1960’s consisting of Pugh, Pugh, Barney, Magrew, Cuthburt, Dibble and Grub.

6. The Seven Seas.

7. Even in Chinese culture, the seventh day of the first moon of the lunar year is known as Human's Day to be celebrated as the universal birthday of all human beings. 

Producing the paper has been an interesting ride and we wonder what the next seven years may bring though seeing as life is cyclical, probably just more of the same with only the names changing to protect the innocent.

Cheers!

Rob and the team in thoughtful mood.