Easy as 1-2-3
This Sunday is New Year’s Eve, December 31st. If you look at it numerically, it’s 12-31. And since this is still the year 2023, that would make the date 12-31-23.
Since I put “dashes” in between the month and date, and date and year, when I write it like that, I didn’t see it at first. But if you take out the dashes, leaving only the six numbers, it’s “1-2-3-1-2-3”.
A nice oddity, I guess…not as good as, for example, December 12, 2012, which was 12-12-12.
But apparently 1-2-3-1-2-3 is enough for some people, so they are flocking to the quick-marriage capital of the world, Las Vegas, to tie the knot on Sunday. There are benefits to being married as of December 31…even if only for a few hours, you can claim married status on your income tax returns, which usually leads to favorable results. That’s why lots of folks hold off on finalizing their divorces until January of a given year.
This 123-123 calendar oddity is apparently what people in Vegas call a “specialty date” and they make a big deal out of it, to get you to show up and have Elvis perform your ceremony, or whatever. The record for most Las Vegas marriages in a single day was set on July 7 of 2007…07-07-07. They billed it as “Lucky 7’s Day” and 4,492 wedding ceremonies took place. No word on how many of those marriages wound up rolling snake eyes.
On New Year’s Eve, Las Vegas typically has about 500 wedding ceremonies take place, double the daily average. So combine 123-123 with New Year’s Eve…and now you know why Clark County, Nevada, is setting up a pop-up marriage license bureau at the airport near the Terminal 1 baggage claim area.
Because each of those weddings brings dollars into Sin City. And those are the numbers they really care about.
