Posted on by Sophie Li

Blogger Aesthetic Award!! (and an interesting cultural tidbit about China)

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!

Did you have any bad luck today? Do you believe in Friday the 13th?

This got me thinking about the superstitions around numbers. I grew up with my Chinese family, and we have another whole set of “good” numbers and “bad” numbers. Unlike Friday the 13th which has biblical origins, Chinese superstitions about numbers are based on their phonetic pronunciation.

For example:

4 is a BAAAAD number, because it sounds phonetically like “die”, or “death” in Chinese. Therefore any number that contains the digit 4 is considered bad. 14 = “will die”, 147 = “we’ll die together”, and 14147 = “NO ONE LIVES”.

6 is a good number, because it sounds like “smooth sailing”. You know how 666 is a bad number in Western culture? This is actually a GREAT number in China.

8 is THE BEST NUMBER EVER, because it sounds like “get rich”. You may notice that Chinese people like to get married on, say, August 8, 2018, and that some of your Chinese friends may have 8’s in their emails or car license plate.

Now I’m curious to hear about the superstitions in your culture!

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You may recognize this tag from elsewhere on the blogosphere! After seeing amazing aesthetics by other fellow bloggers (Nyx @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books, Melissa @ The Bookish Wanderer, and Beth @ Reading Every Night), I was inspired to give this a go! (Definitely check out their aesthetics – they are awesome!!)

The Rules:

  1. Collect any number of images that you feel represent you as a person—your personality, aspirations, favorite things, anything at all that makes you you.
  2. Put your chosen images together into a collage of whatever size and shape you find pleasing.
  3. Share your masterpiece with everyone, in all the places.
  4. Maybe nominate other bloggers as a way to tell them, “Hey, you, I think you’re awesome, and we should celebrate that awesomeness.”
  5. Share these rules (and maybe the below tips, if you’re feeling helpful).

Tips:

My aesthetic:

I am a bit nervous about posting this one, because there are a few photos from my personal collection (including a photo of me and a photo of my dog!) I will let you guys guess which one is me 🙂

Blogger aesthetic award

Some of my favourite hobbies (other than blogging!) are featured in this aesthetic: Reading, sewing, writing, and pole dancing. I have an adorable (and spoiled) greyhound, Charles, and I am a big fan of positivity and perseverance.

Photo credits go to Pinterest and my iPhone 🙂

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How was your Friday the 13th? Do you believe in superstitions? Are there superstitions that are unique to your culture? What are your favourite hobbies?

If you love making aesthetics, or want to give it a try, you are welcome to do this tag!!

35 Replies to “Blogger Aesthetic Award!! (and an interesting cultural tidbit about China)”

    1. Hi Dani! Thank you! Yes Charles is a charmer 🙂 That’s very cool that you are part Japanese Dani! And I am not surprised that the number 4 also has a similar meaning in Japan, since they share some words with Chinese 🙂

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      Reply

  4. Your aesthetics is fine as always but I am hopeless when it comes to this so I don’t really do aesthetics.
    I love cultural peculiarities although I am not superstitious. In Greece curiously it’s Tuesday the 13th that’s considered unlucky. Apart from 13 no number in particular is considered unlucky, 666 is considered just bad. Of course 3 and 7 have a special place in many cultures. We also don’t have lucky numbers.
    My main hobbies (besides books of course) would be gaming and computers. I used to be a modeller too (I love electric trains) but I don’t have the time or space anymore… I love boardgames (esp wargames) and I try to be active in Role Playing Games, maybe I’ll get an online group going this winter.

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    1. That is very interesting that you guys consider Tuesday the 13th to be unlucky- I didn’t know that before! In Canada 7 is considered to be lucky!

      That’s great that you love board games! My fiancé is also a fan and we play a lot of games together. We love Pandemic Legacy (not sure if this one is available in Greece or has a different name, but it is about eliminating a virus that has infected the world!) and sometimes we play Catan. That’s cool like you like RPGs 🙂

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      1. Of course I know Pandemic, it has even been translated into greek. Catan is very well known too and there lots of games cafes in the big cities. And role playing is a whole new kind of experience. Be sure to try it someday!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. That’s very cool that you have Catan and Pandemic there as well! We play Pandemic legacy which is a bit different (you play 12 games and each time the game changes depending on the last game- for example some cities can be permanently destroyed). I haven’t tried role playing but it does sound interesting, hope to try it one day!

        Liked by 1 person

  5. OH MY, is that you pole dancing?! That’s AMAZING, I mean, how do you even manage NOT to fall?! Your aesthetic is so, so beautiful, I’m so happy you did this tag, I secretly wanted you to ahah 🙂 Your dog is so, so adorable, I love him, I think? Aw ❤
    Hm, I don't think I'm really that supersticious, I think it depends on the moment? Friday 13th happened with nothing particular or weird happening, so.. ahahah 🙂 It is SO interesting to learn about these lucky numbers 🙂

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    1. Hi Marie! Aw thank you so much ❤ I love pole dancing and I’ve gotten so much stronger since I started!

      I’m not too superstitious about Friday the 13th either. In my opinion, it is just any other day, except people might remember more about the unlucky things that happen to them, that they wouldn’t otherwise remember on regular days. I am a bit more wary about the number 4 since it is so ingrained in me, lol 🙂 Glad that you liked learning about this part of Chinese culture 🙂

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  7. Love your aesthetic, simple yet elegant. And yes, coming from a Chinese American family, I’ve definitely heard about those numbers. I usually see “2828” or “128”, which means easily rich and I will be rich.

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  8. This was so interesting!! I knew a little about 4 and 8 in Chinese culture, but not about 6. I’m Jewish, so the number thing is really different to Christians- for instance, 13 has a lot of spiritual significance, so weirdly enough is “lucky”. And the word “chai” (which means life) adds up to the number 18 (using gematria- which is basically just counting the value of the letters) so that’s considered lucky, as is 36, which is like 2 lives. There’s loads of others cos of the whole gematria thing- a lot of it’s silly, but it’s still fun to do. (Also sorry for taking up so much of your time with this!! got carried away with your question!) I love your aesthetic! And that’s so impressive that you can poledance! I love reading and writing too. And your dog is so cute!

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    Reply

    1. That is so interesting to hear about gematria! I didn’t know that 18 and 36 are considered lucky numbers for Jewish people- that is really cool 🙂 I love learning about new cultures! And thank you for your sweet comment ❤

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  9. Oh great aesthetic Sophie, and I loved how you included some information about Chinese superstitions as well. I never really believe in the whole ‘Friday 13th is bad luck’ thing, it’s just normally another day for me, but I kind of enjoy learning more about superstitions and the like you know?
    You dog looks so adorable. I have a greyhound as well and personally I think they make the very best pets. 😀 I just wish I’d thought of adding a photo of my dog into my aesthetic. 🙂

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      2. Hahaha yes that sounds just like Charles as well! It used to be so hard to convince him to get up for a walk, but he is getting better at that these days 🙂 Looking forward to seeing a picture of your greyhound 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Lol!!!! Tommy sounds like such an adorable dog ❤ People often joke that Charles is like a deer, because he kind of looks like one, and he loves to eat…. grass LOL :’)

        Liked by 1 person

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