The baat, faat factor: Chinese celebrate 08-08-08

Family and friends overseas who couldn’t make it to the ceremony in Costa Mesa gifted the soon-to-be-weds with lucky Chinese envelopes stuffed with $888.

The pair agreed on four groomsmen and four bridesmaids.

And to no one’s surprise, the reception was scheduled at 8 pm.

The arrival of today’s numerical anomaly — 8/8/08 — marks an irresistible alignment of Chinese culture’s most celebrated number.

Eight in Cantonese, “baat”, sounds like the word for prosperity, “faat”, which extends to connote all things lucky. It explains the abundance of eights in phone numbers belonging to Chinese and the scores of Chinese businesses that feature an eight.

It is also why China’s Olympic planners chose to kick off the Games on August 8 at 8:08 pm.

The combination of fortuitous timing and the start of the historic sporting event would figure to command significance in Southern California’s Chinese community equal to, say, Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July and the Super Bowl rolled into one.

Business has been hopping at Chinese banquet halls and Temple City’s Asian bridal district on Las Tunas Drive. Tsao and Chung were turned away at a dozen wedding sites that were booked for up to a year before they succeeded in finding a location.

“I’ve had twice as much business,” said Jay Hsiang of Temple City’s Oscar Photography. “They started booking us the middle of last year.”

Several large Chinese American associations hoped to turn 8-8-08 into an extravaganza at the Hollywood Park Casino, the same venue where they celebrated the hand-over of Hong Kong and Macao to the Chinese.

But the party, expected to be attended by 1,000 people, was scaled back after NBC denied organisers live access to the opening ceremony in Beijing.

Then at 5 am — 8 pm in Beijing — revelers turning their attention to large screens beaming the opening ceremony on Chinese television.

“If it wasn’t for the Olympics, 8/8/08 would be like any other day,” said Hu, a Shanghai native.