Friday, October 10, 2008
Double Ten's (in)significance
Double Ten is upon us. Yawn! Not an inspiring national day. But at least it's a holiday. These days people just seem to go through the motions with the ceremonies, the parades, the fly bys and the fireworks show for the ROC's national day.
It takes its name from the Oct. 10, 1911 Wuchang uprising which is the symbolic beginning of the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
The symbol for the holiday is an joint double cross signifying two Chinese character 10s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Ten_Day
What is an interesting little known fact is that the symbol is also a powerful fengshui symbol as well. Taipei City Hall is situated atop the T-junction of Renai Road. Having a home or building atop a T-junction is considered bad fengshui.
In order to combat the bad vibes, the city hall designers made the building in the shape of a Double Ten symbol, which is really evident when looking at it from the air (satellite or Taipei 101 observation deck).
The logic goes like this: T-junction is bad luck, Double Ten is good luck therefore bad luck is canceled by good luck. Kinda neat!
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