Numbers and symbols of the different meanings and symbols of numbers

The symbolism of numbers is very rich, and in addition to the symbolism of the concept as a whole, there are different symbolisms for specific numbers.

Superstitious beliefs about numbers are often based on their traditional symbolism (such as 7 for the mysterious), and the numbers 1, 2, and 3 together represent unity, duality, and composites in almost all parts of the world. In Pythagorean terms, 1, 2, and 3 symbolize the process of moving from a point to a line to a surface and finally to a solid.

Larger numbers sometimes have important symbolic meanings. In Mesoamerica, 20 was a sacred number often associated with the sun god; the Hebrews valued 21 as associated with wisdom; according to Jewish tradition, 50 signified the year of revelry and was worshipped as a god; 60 is one of the most fundamental numbers in the Chinese calendar; and 70 is the limit of human life in the Bible, a symbol of wholeness and universality. For many, 10,000 symbolizes the infinity of numbers and the infinity of time; the Greeks called the 10,000 Persian warriors "immortal spirits".

Zero

"Zero" symbolizes the beginning, the starting point, and also symbolizes fragmentation, not much, and when the number reaches zero it is a state of chaos.

According to Taoist theory, zero gives birth to one, which is the birth of Taiji; one and two is the birth of Taiji, which is the birth of two yi, which is the state of chaos when it comes to the state of no-pole, the primitive state of the universe which is formless and unimaginative. zero is called the golden number in ancient China (which means an extremely precious number).

One

"One" is a simple and complex number. It is both the most inclusive of all numbers, and all things can be categorized as one. "The One of all, the One of all."

Legend has it that heaven and earth were originally indistinguishable, but then the clear air rose and the turbid air sank, and heaven and earth were divided, and all things grew. This statement reflects our entire view of the One: first, the One is the greatest whole, the one that contains all things. Secondly, all the Ones are composed of a single concrete individual, which can be divided to the smallest degree until it is indivisible. This single individual is also the One.

That is to say, the One is not simply "big" or "small," but is linked to both concepts.

"One" also agrees with big. In Naxi hieroglyphics, the pronunciation of "one" is the same as "big" in "size", and the word "big" evolved from the word "female". The word "big" evolved from the word "female" is also homophonic with the word "double", which is a unit of quantity. The image of the ancient Chinese character "大" is a mysterious gesture of divine significance, a sorcerer to welcome the gods of a show of hands and feet, a similar gesture in the primitive rock paintings in our country in the worship of the gods in the scene is not uncommon, and some of the "大" glyphs are a head of the sun that is radiant. The head of some of the "big" shape is a radiant sun.

Some believe that the mystical nature of the number "one" as a mystical number stems from the fact that it symbolizes the sun and the bird. The same people who created this mystical number were the Shang people, the sun and bird worshippers. The sun has a great deal to do with our lives. In the eyes of primitive people, the sun is the biggest and brightest star in the sky. Therefore, the name of the sun also has the word "big" in it, and the sun rises from the east every day, flies across the sky, and lands in the west. So people imagined that the sun was a bird. The bird was the archetype of the sun god.

In eastern China, the agricultural civilization was developed, and bird worship was widely practiced among the eastern peoples. This is also an important reason for making the bird the archetype of the sun god.

In Islam and some other religions, the One represents God, the symbol of fundamentality and unity, as well as the sun and light and the origin of life. In the Western tradition, the Arabic numeral also has symbolic meanings such as penis, aggression and activity. The Pythagorean school of thought considered "one" to be a base point, the foundation for all arithmetic. Confucianism believes that "one" is a perfect entity. It is indivisible and is the mysterious source from which all things originate. To put it more simply, the One is the symbol of the beginning, of the self and of solitude.

Two

The mystical symbolism of the Two is reflected first and foremost in the dualistic and antagonistic way of thinking.

There are many concepts derived from the duality-opposition method of thinking, such as the opposition of yin and yang. The opposition between day and night is the most common in nature, and when primitive people realized this, they gradually found many similar opposing attributes in the things around them, such as sunshine and rain, high and low, wet and dry, cold and warm, male and female, life and death, etc.

People abstracted the concept of yin and yang from natural phenomena, and as late as the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, this abstract concept of yin and yang was already formed. After the formation of the abstract concept of yin and yang, with the help of the extensive influence of the primitive dichotomy thinking, it rapidly penetrated into all fields of religion, witchcraft, science and society, and became the dominant worldview and methodology in certain regions for a certain period of time.

"Two" is the most contradictory symbolism of all numbers, and is the representative of dualism. It can symbolize both compounding and division, attraction and repulsion, integration and contradiction. Ancient statues of beasts, symbolizing protectors, were often paired with a male and a female, thus implying strength.

In Chinese symbolism, "two" is an ominous number, usually associated with the weak "yin". Two gods, or the positive and negative sides of a god, symbolize the opposition of two conflicting forces, just as twins represent both strength and the fierce battle between two forces of evil.

Two is often thought of as a split in the fundamental unity, and from this point of view it is usually associated with the feminine essence, symbolizing unity, love, fertility (fecundity) and growth, alternating between creation and destruction.

Three

The number three is used as a mystical symbol both in the West and in China.

Three has almost no negative meaning in the symbolic system, and its symbolism involves religious ideas, traditions, gods, and many other areas. Folk tales say that "three times lucky", the doctrine of the Trinity of Christ enables the only true God of Christianity to be worshipped by all people through the Son and the Holy Spirit, which is enough to show that "three" can replace "one" to become the omnipotence, power, strength and power of all. "as a symbol of omnipotence, power and unity.

In ancient mythology, the unity of the three gods was a feature of the ancient and conceptual world. Examples include: the Three Goddesses of Beauty and Favor, the Three Goddesses of Fate, the Gore Workers, the Three Sisters of Grievous, and the Three Goddesses of Vengeance. Even the Nine Muses imply that they are three triune deities.

Similarly, the worship of the "three" has been documented in various world religions. In Hinduism, there are three gods - Brahma, the god of creation, Vishnu, the god of maintenance, and Shiva, the god of destruction. Even the Christian teachings have references to the Trinity. Buddhists, on the other hand, refer to knowledge (buddhi) as the "three wholes", a concept that encompasses the ego, the mortal body, i.e., Gautama Buddha, and the devotees blessed by him. From this derives the symbolic "Three Great Treasures": the precepts, the Buddha, and the multitude of beings. The list goes on and on.

In Hegel's dialectic, positive and negative propositions are linked together through synthesis, so the number "three" gives people endless associations of perfection and mystery. It is also often said that "the third time is the charm", and mythological heroes must accomplish three great things in order to prove their greatness. The duality of male and female is only perfected by the trio of mother, father and child.

Another manifestation of the mystical number three is that it symbolizes the cosmic framework of traditional culture. The number "three" implies almost everything about the power of creation: the head, the brain, the body and the spirit, birth, life and death, the past, the present and the future, etc. In many religious traditions, the number "three" is used as a symbol of the cosmic framework. In many religious traditions, the symbol of the Trinity has a different story and meaning.

In the eyes of Pythagoras, three is the number of harmony, while Aristotle believed that three represents wholeness because it has a beginning, an end and a middle. Aristotle, on the other hand, believed that "three" represented completeness because it had both a head and a middle. Taoism also considers "three" to be a symbol of strength, as it suggests a central element.

Four

At first, it was thought that the most general symbolism of four was the four directions and the four seasons. However, if we take care to compare the number four with the number three, we can see that the symbolism of four is much more than that.

The symbolism of "four" originally came from the four-square and four-armed cross, representing solidity, comprehensiveness and omnipresence, as well as organization, power, wisdom, justice and omnipotence. "Four is also a number of reason, symbolizing wisdom. There are four elements - earth, fire, air and water - and four temperaments in the Western tradition.

Four and the cross and square. There are the four seasons, heaven and the four rivers, the four human natures, the four quarters, the four authors of the Gospels, the four great prophets, and the four Doctors of the Church, but above all there are the four letters of God's name, which is transliterated in the Hebrew tetragrammaton as YHWH or JHVH, and is often pronounced "Jehovah" - although pious Jews have too much respect for this name to read it as YHWH or JHVH. to honor the name to pronounce it.

The number four does not derive its basic meaning from a simple superposition of dualities. Jung saw the Catholic doctrine of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary as a manifestation of an attempt to "incorporate the feminine element in the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to make it a regular and full Neo-Orthodox form. The coordinates we use to depict the world are also based on the number "four," which may be derived from the four elements or the four directions.

Traditional Chinese culture still has a preference for four. Legend has it that the four monarchs protect the Jade Emperor, the supreme god in traditional Chinese religion. People use the four amulets to repel evil. The four arts are qin, chess, calligraphy and painting; the four treasures of literature are pen, ink, paper and inkstone; the four virtues are honesty, humility, responsibility and etiquette; and the "four noble truths" form the cornerstone of Buddhism.

Of course, in China, not all "fours" are good. In Chinese folklore, many people are wary of the word "four" because of its similarity to the word "death," which is the same as the Western taboo on "thirteen," which is the same as the Western taboo on "thirteen.

In other parts of the world, there are different ways of saying "four". The Americas believe that four is the central principle of the universe. The Mayans had four colors and four "notations" of the natural year. In the cosmic consciousness of the Aztecs, four world trees supported the firmament. "The four quarters were said to be the birthplace of the winds, with four huge jars of water hanging in the air, from which the water poured out as rain"; and there were also the gods of the four quarters, who escaped the "great flood that destroyed the world".

Five

The number "five" can be found everywhere in real life. People have five senses, hands have five fingers, flowers have five petals of flowers, money has five dollars, fifty cents ....... The number "five" has a unique symbolic meaning in both the East and the West.

In Chinese mystical culture, the most important "five" structure is the "five elements". The five elements are located in the five directions of east, west, south, north and center, and have their own elements and attributes. These five elements, i.e. wood, fire, earth, gold and water, are the most basic elemental structure, "the five elements are mixed together to form everything", and all things in heaven and earth are formed on the basis of these five elements. In Chinese culture, "five" symbolizes "basic", "foundation" and "unchangeable", i.e., it is the symbol of the five directions, and also the symbol of the five directions. In Chinese culture, "five" symbolizes "basic", "foundation" and "unchangeable", i.e., it is the symbol of five directions and the general name of the five elements.

In the West, the pentagram also suggests the importance of the number five. When two points of the pentagram are facing down and one point is facing up, it can be seen as an upright human figure with a head, arms and legs. In the Old Testament, Jesus fed four thousand people with five loaves of bread. Thus, in addition to symbolizing the human body (the five crosses on the stone altar were used to commemorate the five wounds on Jesus' body), "five" also symbolizes infinity.

"Five" as a number exists not only in people's daily lives, but also in the humanistic and spiritual fields of human society, as well as in the fields of social and natural sciences. It becomes a symbol of a fixed result (e.g., human body, natural objects), and at the same time, it symbolizes things that are cyclical (e.g., the five elements, the numerical calculation of Dr. Rectangle).

"Five" is associated with human nature, and is represented graphically as a pentagram formed by a person's head and outstretched limbs, or it can be represented directly in the shape of a pentagram, with lines crossing and connecting the points of the pentagon. In addition to being an indication of the general structure of the human body, "five" is a symbol in Chinese, Japanese, Celtic, and other cultural traditions that refers to wholeness and completeness. Other traditions suggest that the Five contains a center, the fifth direction of the universe. Other symbolic meanings of "five" include love, health, sensitivity, weight-bearing, contemplation, analysis, criticism, strength, wholeness, biological reproduction and the heart.

Six

"Six" is a symbol of unity and harmony, and is represented by the symbol of two triangles combined, one positive and one negative, with one triangle pointing upward (masculine) and the other pointing downward (feminine). This symbol is what is now known as the Shield of David, a symbol of the unity of Israel and Judah all the way through, as well as an ideogram for the human soul.

"Six" is an interesting number. After creating the world in six days, God "rested on the seventh day." St. Augustine thought that "six" was unusual because it is the sum of the first three numbers (one, two, and three). The six times of forgiveness depicted in the Gospels constitute one of the few series of symbols associated with six in the Christian tradition. An important visual symbol that includes "six" is the six-pointed star, the Shield of David (a Jewish symbol), which consists of two equilateral triangles stacked upside down.

There are also references to "six six six" in the New Testament book of Revelation. It is said that before the end of the world, the devil will be rampant on the earth, and the image is a monster, fierce and ferocious. According to the Book of Revelation, "Here is wisdom. And whosoever is wise may count the number of the beast: for this is the number of a man: and his number is six hundred and sixty-six." Later, "the number of the beast is six hundred and sixty-six" evolved into a symbol of the devil, an evil omen.

Famous as the first emperor of China and founder of the centralized kingdom, Qin Shi Huang preferred the hexadecimal system and divided his empire into 36 military provinces, each of which was controlled by a civil and a military officer; the Han dynasty that followed the Qin dynasty used the ixadecimal system. The dominant concept of number in ancient China was based on five, but traditionally the body was divided into six parts (i.e., head, torso, arms, and legs), and human emotions were divided into six (i.e., anger, pain, hatred, joy, desire, and love); there were also the terms "the six rivers," "the kings of the six kingdoms," and so on. " and so on.

In modern times, "six" has taken on a new symbolic meaning, symbolizing good luck and a smooth career, and "six six big luck" has the meaning of wishing others a prosperous career.

Seven

The number seven is not only sacred and mysterious, but also full of magic, especially in Western Asia, where it is a symbol of the orderliness of the universe and the spiritual world, as well as a representation of the natural cycle of turnover and complete agreement.

"Seven" is an ordinary number, but many countries, many peoples regard it as a mysterious, sacred number, it is very reverent and awe-inspiring.

In the ancient civilizations of the Middle East, "seven" was the most sacred number after "three".

The ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, and Chinese all believed that there were seven sacred stars in the sky: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Christianity believes that God's creation of all things was accomplished in 7 days, hence the 7 days of the week; that the Lord's Prayer is divided into 7 parts; that there are 7 joys and 7 sorrows of the Virgin Mary, and so on. In the Book of Revelation the "seven" play a central role: the seven churches, the seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb, and the seven golden bowls of God's wrath, which are "sealed with seven seals" in the Book of Revelation.

Islam, on the other hand, believes that heaven is divided into seven layers, consisting in turn of pure silver, pure gold, pearls, white gold, silver, rubies and the unattainable, ineffable holy light. The 7th level, the highest heaven composed of holy light, is dominated by Abraham, where the angels unite in glorifying Allah, the supreme indwelling. Each angel has 70,000 heads, each head has 70,000 faces, each face has 70,000 mouths, each mouth has 70,000 tongues, and each tongue speaks 70,000 languages, which is truly a thousand words, a single voice of praise, and a multitude of voices.

Judaism believes that the Jews have a Sabbath every seven days and a Sabbath year every seven years, in which people do not plow crops and recuperate. Every seventy-seven or forty-nine years, there is a grand celebration for the 50-year festival for those who have done so. There were three major festivals in the year, each lasting seven days. The first and second festivals are seven weeks apart.

Buddhist legend has it that Siddhartha Gautama faced the wall for seven days, or seven seventy-nine days to achieve enlightenment. According to Buddhist scriptures, all things are generated by seven origins, namely, earth, fire, water, wind, air, knowledge and root; according to Buddhist custom, a person has to accumulate for seventy-seven and forty-nine days after death; Buddhist monasteries are divided into seven halls, namely, the Golden Hall (the main hall), the Lecture Hall, the Pagoda, the Scripture Collection, the Bell Tower, the Monk's Workshop, the Dining Hall; and there are seven kinds of calamities in life: fire, water, rakshasas, the 10,000 staffs, ghosts, shackles and grievances and thieves; and so on.

The religion of the Parsis in ancient Persia honored seven "eternal saints" as supreme deities: good intentions, extreme justice, the longed-for kingdom of heaven, pious humility, unparalleled health, eternal youth, and prudent obedience.

Medieval Europe also had a special preference for the Seven: the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit (represented in medieval times by the dove), the Seven Virtues, the Seven Literary and Scientific Disciplines, the Seven Eucharistic Communions, the Seven Periods of Life, the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Covetousness, Lasciviousness, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth), and the Seven Prayers of the Lord's Prayer. Prayer.

In China, "seven" also carries a mysterious color, such as "seven stars" in the sky; "seven emotions" in human feelings; "seven colors" in music; and "seven saints" in music. Seven colors"; music has "seven tones"; poetry has seven words, seven poems, seven rhymes; the human body has "seven orifices"; folklore has a bull Lang Weaving Maiden on the eve of the seventh month of July magpie bridge meeting.

Some people believe that the reason why "seven" by many peoples worship, because seven is three and four of the sum of three and four in the ancient Greek Pythagorean school of view, is the two sacred numbers, that is, to meet the Pythagorean law of the two smallest positive integers. Another way of looking at it is that many peoples in ancient times knew about the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The sun and the moon traveled in the sky, bringing light, warmth and life to the earth; the ebb and flow of the tide, and even the onset of menstruation in women, are all mysteriously linked to the sun, moon and stars. Thus, on behalf of the seven stars of the number "seven" is also covered with a variety of divine colors, into a variety of religious legends, myths, canonical system.

Eight

"Eight" is a symbol of the harmony and unity of the universe, and the secular view is that "eight" is a symbol of renewal, rebirth, or blessing.

Eight is a symbol of the opening up of the universe, and in Taiji, it means the opening up of heaven and earth. The largest even number in the digits, 8 in reverse is ∞, which means infinity, the infinite.

The group of eight or eights is a symbolic cosmological idea from the school of the clergy in the ancient Egyptian city of Koumnou (literally "city of eights"). While other religious centers emphasized the idea of groups of nine or nines, at Qumunu the creation from the primordial chaos was embodied in the duality of yin and yang: for example, the water of the primordial age was embodied in the form of both yang and yin; and there was a duality in the infinite universe. This eight brings forth life in the form of frogs and serpents, which live in the silt of the primordial period, where the first mountains rose, and on which the sun god made the first lotus flower.

Eight, on the other hand, refers to the four directions (east, south, west and north) and the four corners (southeast, northeast, southwest and northwest) in general.

The Eight Sections, on the other hand, refer to the eight sections of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice.

In addition to this, there are also eight generations, eight sounds, eight Confucianism, eight valleys, eight Yangzhou monsters, eight great masters of prose and other various sayings.

It is said that in China, the phenomenon of "eight" first appeared in Hong Kong. Because "eight" is pronounced as "fa" in Cantonese, Hong Kong people who are looking forward to getting rich are particularly fond of "eight".

Nine

"Nine" is a very strange number. "Nine is the shape of a curved road. Nine discs (describing a curved path).

As a triple of three, "nine" is the most auspicious number in many cultural traditions, especially in Chinese, Buddhist and Celtic cultures, and is the most powerful symbol of yang.

Throughout the ages, people have recognized nine as the greatest number. The numbers in heaven and earth "begin at zero one and end at nine," and "to ten is one again. "Ten" is only the upper "one", and "nine" is 0 ~ 9 in this digital big brother.

The number nine is derived from the multiplication of the sacred number three, which represents eternity and wholeness, and is closely associated with geometric shapes such as circles, squares and triangles. The Chinese consider "nine" to be sacred, representing good fortune and luck, and therefore use it as the number that defines the social laws (the nine rituals) and the official status hierarchy. In Hinduism, the mandala, which consists of 81 squares generated from 9 squares, is considered to be a symbol of the universe, and is therefore often used as an aid to prophecy and astrology.

In the West, "9" is used as the multiplier of 3, symbolizing higher authority. The "9" was most important in ancient Egyptian religion and cosmology. The "group of nine gods" became the main grouping of deities in religion and occupied a very important place in the system of gods.

In addition, the existence of the terms "nine angels", "nine celestial beings", and "nine muses" proves that "nine" symbolizes a "higher authority". The meaning of the word "nine" can be summarized into multiple symbolic meanings such as hierarchical difference, majority, affluence, and depth.

Ten

Ten symbolizes a turning point in history or a cycle of life and death. "Ten is a symbol of perfection - especially in Jewish tradition, where this mystical number suggests a certain wholeness and unity, and where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, which summarize the most important religious obligations of the Hebrew people.

In the Pythagorean system of numerology, ten is a symbol of totality and creation, usually represented by a ten-pointed star. It is obvious that man has exactly ten fingers, and that ten is therefore a symbol of perfection. The ancient Egyptian calendar was based on the Digen method, with thirty-six stars at ten-day intervals, each of which was said to influence a person's life, a concept that was crucial to the development of ancient Greek astrology.

The tenth became an almost universal tax code, with a tenth of the spoils of war, property, or crops being set aside in honor of a god or king - the origin of the tithe system. In China, "ten" is a number of absolute balance, represented by two vertically crossed lines, the horizontal one slightly shorter, and "ten" represents the union of the masculine and feminine numbers, and is therefore a symbol of marriage.

Eleven

In Europe, "eleven" is the "devil's number", and St. Augustine believed that "eleven" was associated with evil, or, to be more esoteric. "Eleven is just a little more than the last ten, and is therefore often associated with danger, conflict and rebellion.

In China, eleven is the number of justice, and shamanic shamans consider it an auspicious number and a symbol of abundance. Being saved at the "eleventh hour" is used in Christian parables to refer to the last hour of the day when laborers were paid for a full day's work.

Twelve

Twelve is the most fundamental number of time and space in astrology, ancient astronomy, and calendars, and has gained even greater symbolic significance in Christian and Jewish traditions, especially as a symbol for In particular, in the Christian and Jewish traditions, "twelve" has acquired a more important symbolic meaning, referring to those who are loved by God. In addition, "twelve" represents the organization of the universe, the regions of the heavens, and the cycles of time (twelve months, twelve hours of day and night, and the twelve years of the Chinese zodiac). Since "twelve" is the result of multiplying "three" and "four", it also symbolizes the unity of the spiritual and secular worlds.

In the Bible, Jacob had twelve sons, so there were twelve tribes of Israel. Also, the colorful bibs of priests are studded with twelve diamonds, Christ had twelve disciples, the tree of life bears twelve fruits, the gates of heaven have twelve panels, the crown on Mary's head has twelve stars, the god Mithra had twelve disciples, and some Muslim believers believe that the Prophet Ali had twelve heirs. The theory of solar astrology is also based on the movement of the sun through the twelve signs of the zodiac.

The ancient Greek Hesiod (700 BC) believed that there were twelve giants in the world, and later Greek myths suggested that twelve gods and goddesses lived on Mount Olympus and that twelve famous knights sat around King Arthur's round table. There are also twelve days of Christmas, a tradition that stems from the Christmas season and the Feast of the Gods of Agriculture, which takes place at the winter solstice, a day that is also symbolic in the calendar, referring to each of the upcoming months.

Thirteen

Thirteen has always been an unlucky number in many Western countries and regions, and has been used as a symbol of bad luck or misfortune.

The ancient Greek Hesiod warned farmers not to sow on the 13th. In ancient Babylon, the 13-month leap year was marked by an "unlucky raven". It was believed that the devil always had a party of 13 with 12 witches.

Westerners have a superstitious belief in thirteen and a taboo against thirteen, especially when the thirteenth day falls on the same day as Friday. According to the Bible, Jesus and his disciples **** 13 people, before being put to death to hold the "Last Supper" on the day of Friday. Therefore, Westerners believe that "thirteen" is an unlucky number, will bring misfortune, if the day is "thirteen" number and coincides with the Friday is very unlucky.

In the East, thirteen has been a very auspicious number, the Buddhist belief that thirteen is a very auspicious, smooth symbol. The U.S. seal on the back of the dollar contains a prophecy about 13. The design on the back of the dollar includes a Mayan-style pyramid. The pyramid has 13 levels from the bottom up. On top of the 13th floor of the pyramid there is an "eye in the sky" that radiates light. It is said that this pattern signifies the awakening of the third eye after the 13 Baktuns.

Forty

The symbolic number "forty" is widely used in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as the number of days required for notable periods of time, especially for divine testing and spiritual preparation, including purification of the soul, repentance, devotional waiting, and fasting.

One plausible explanation for the choice of this number is that Babylonian astrologers firmly believed that "forty" was associated with natural disasters, especially in the spring, when storms and floods raged every forty days after the disappearance of the cluster of the star Angels.

Another view is that it took forty days after death for a person to be buried in the ground and no longer haunted. Roman funeral feasts were also held forty days after a person's death. It was also believed that it took forty days for the diseases brought on by the plague to clear up, and the port of Marseilles actually issued a forty-day ban (quarantine) on ships coming from plague-endemic countries in the 14th century.

Early historians used the word "forty" more as a symbol. Thus, the Biblical flood lasted forty days and nights; the Jews struggled and wandered in the wilderness for forty years; Moses spent forty days and nights on Mount Sinai listening to God's teachings a***; the two kings of the Jews, David and Solomon, ruled for forty years each; Christ fasted in the wilderness for forty days (now known as Lent); and thereafter spent forty months preaching, and forty days after Easter, ascended into Heaven. Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld, disappeared for forty days, a period of time that later became the days of religious fasting. Both the Hebrews and the Muslims consider "forty" to be a number of power and a symbol of achievement or change when performing religious rituals.