• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Eleni Gage

Author, Journalist, Pop Folklorist

  • About
  • Books
    • Lucky In Love
    • The Ladies of Managua
    • Other Waters
    • North of Ithaka
  • Blog
  • Articles
    • Travel
    • Essays and Reviews
    • Lifestyle
  • Talks
    • Book Clubs
  • Contact

It’s Your Lucky Day…And Everyone Else’s Too!

December 6, 2018 by Eleni |

Chai

Right now it feels like everything is happening at once. Between the holidays, end of the year, my book coming out next Tuesday and regular work and #momlife, I walk around constantly feeling like there’s somewhere I should be and something I should be doing that I’m not. And pretty much everyone I know feels the same way.

But that’s the way life is…everything tends to happen at once. And sometimes, that’s a good thing.Take today. It’s the last extra-lucky day of the year 2018, when the date 12/06/18 adds up to double chai. If that sounds like a new Starbucks special to you, allow me to explain: Every Hebrew letter has a numerical value; the letter heth is 8 and yod is 10, and together they spell chai, the word for “life.” For this reason, Jewish grandparents the world over have been known to stuff gift envelopes with sums of money ending in $18 as presents—or even better, $36, double chai! (In a romantic coincidence, 18 also happens to be what you get it you add up the numerical value of the word “ohavi,” or beloved.) 

Nico, three years ago, chewing on St. Nicholas.

Not only is today a double-chai day (Play your numbers! Apply for a job! Ask someone on a date!), it’s a double-chai day that’s also the fifth day of Chanukah. AND, it’s St. Nicholas’ day, honoring the 3d century bishop in Asia Minor who was so generous he inspired the idea of the other St. Nick, Santa Claus. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children, sailors, and unmarried women (because he dropped gold down the chimney of his poor neighbor’s house so that the man’s daughters would have dowries and could get married—the gold fell into a stocking hung in the fireplace to dry, making it the original stocking stuffer). He’s also the namesake of my father and my son, the not-quite-so-saintly Nico who threw a tantrum and refused to wear the safety restraints in his stroller, making us late for school, so that I bumped into a friend on the walk home. (See how that turned lucky?)

New moon by Andrew McMillan

When I got home and checked my emails, along with notifications of various holiday sales and requests for donations, I got this from an astrology site notifying me that today is also the last full moon of 2018: “Have you ever wanted to start over? Today you get the cosmic do-over you’ve been waiting for. New moons are a time of rebirth, and this one in daring, forward-thinking Sagittarius is just what you need to take advantage of new (and maybe surprising) opportunities.”

Since I’m not St. Nick, sitting around surrounded by bags of gold to pass out, I’d like to offer you this news-you-can-use info as a holiday gift instead.* It’s the luckiest day of the year, a festival of lights, a celebration of generosity, and a fresh-start-friendly new moon all in one. Seize the day! There will never be another one quite like it.

*No returns or exchanges but feel free to re-gift this info far and wide.

Filed Under: cultural beliefs, festivals, holidays, religion, superstitions

Primary Sidebar

Get lucky!

Subscribe to my blog,
theliminalstage for
updates, articles, and
auspicious rituals.

Eleni Gage

About Eleni

The daughter of a Greek father and a Minnesotan mother. I grew up in Athens, Greece, and the suburbs of Worcester, Massachusetts—
and became obsessed with cultural rituals and traditions along the way.

read more

Lucky in Love

is a guide to planning a wedding that’s unique, meaningful, and, above all, auspicious, with the help of customs from all over the world

Buy Now

Latest Blog Posts

Memories, Mansplaining, and the Bestseller I Never Wrote

A couple of weeks ago I woke up thinking about a man who is not my husband. He's someone I went out with over a decade ago and there was no reason he ...

Read more about Memories, Mansplaining, and the Bestseller I Never Wrote

Young Love: Spellbound by Syros

The challenge of travel, for me, is time. My nostalgia vein runs deep, so I constantly want to return to the places I love, and when I'm there, I ...

Read more about Young Love: Spellbound by Syros

Footer

Travel Writing

I love covering places that inspire me—from Greece to Nicaragua and everywhere in between—for outlets such as Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, InStyle and more. Join me on my trips here.

 

Essays and Reviews

From parenting to politics to pop culture, I’ve got opinions —and I’m not afraid to share them in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. Learn why I’m a bad mom here.

Lifestyle Articles

I may not always live my best life, but I’m trying to live a better one! I enjoy learning from the experts when writing about everything from reading more to wasting less. Pick up some tips here.

Copyright © 2023 Eleni Gage. All Rights Reserved.