Eye of Horus

Researching this was so much fun, I remember in grade 7 we had units on Greek, Roman, and
Egyptian Mythologies, I always found their stories of their Gods to be so exciting. I had seen the Eye of Horus before, but at first I thought it was the Eye of Ra; Ra being a god of the sun. Both eyes are connected to one another and represent similar concepts, but learning of the Eye of Horus was extremely interesting. The Eye of Horus has been seen as a symbol of protection, royalty, and good health; the eye was lost in a battle and magically healed and restored -- the restoration symbolized making whole and healing, cool!

According to the myth, the eye was separated into pieces and lost, each part of the eye representing a different fractional value (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and 1/64), and different part of the eye. What I found most interesting was that "these fractions, all with powers of two in their denominators, were used to represent the fractions of hekat, the unit measure of capacity for grains" (source). This ties into what we were learning in class, and how ancient Egyptians may have used calculations for something like payment in wheat, or hekat in this case.

Two things popped into my mind when I thought of 'special meanings of numbers', the first being anniversaries, and the next being lucky numbers. Anniversaries, being represented by dates, can also be represented numerically. These dates can have special meaning to the individuals it effects, we often celebrate my parents anniversary every time it comes around! Another example would be 'lucky numbers'. I've played hockey for over 20 years now, and been coaching for the past 8. One thing I've always noticed with teammates and players is how excited, protective, and disappointed they can be towards their jersey numbers. Some players are so attached to their numbers that they find identity within it, and feel dejected or disappointed when they don't receive it. It's easy to say "your number doesn't define you", but players can be extremely superstitious. 

Personally, my favorite number, and number I've played with since I was around 8/9 was the number 10. My story with it is: when I first started playing, I always wanted my jersey number to match how old I was. Somehow, when I was 8 I took 10, so I told myself I would wear 10 until I was old enough, then move onto 11 when I turned 11; but after 2 extra years of wearing the number, I somehow got attached! I haven't changed my number since