Man has been superstitious from his earliest beginning. Even today, we have customs and rituals based upon the ancient fears and taboos of our superstitious forefathers. But men of all races and cultures have held that the numbers seven and nine have mysterious, indeed mystical and spiritual properties.
Pythogoras, the Greek thinker, well known for his Theorem of the sum of square roots, laid great emphasis on the sacred nature of seven, both as a mathematician and a theologian.
The Old Testament held that God created the earth and its creatures for six days and rested on the seventh day. Earlier tradition held that creation began on a Monday and ended with the crowning glory, ‘man’, on the sixth day (which would be Saturday). This was the origin of the tradition in Europe which proclaimed Sunday as the Sabbath day, the day of relaxation and prayer.
The natural world seems to echo the unique qualities of the number seven. Every schoolboy knows of the seven colours that comprise the spectrum— red, green, violet, blue, yellow, indigo and orange.
The Indian notational system of music has seven basic scales— sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha and ni and the Western system of music— do,re, mi, fa, so, la and ti— also has seven notes.

Seven senses
The ancients were so fond of the number seven that they ascribed seven senses to a human body— they were animation, feeling, speech, taste, sight, hearing and smell. It was further held that each of these properties were under the influence of the seven planets.
The Dark Ages can also claim Seven Wonders of the World like the ancients before them. They would be— the Colosseum in Rome (where gladiators fought wild beasts for public entertainment), the Catacombs of Alexandria, the Great Wall of China (which is made of brick and stone and is 1,400 miles long and took more than half a million workers nearly 25 years to complete), the Leaning Tower of Pisa (which is 15 degrees of its perpendicular), the Porcelain Tower of Manking in China, the Church of St Sophia in Constantinople (or modern Istanbul) and the awesome megaliths of Stonehenge in England.
The Catholic Church mentions the Seven Graces used for sanctimonious purposes. The Lord’s Prayer consists of seven Parts. Even the ancient Indians, the Aztecs, the Incas and the Sumerians and the Mayans held the number seven in awe and reverence. It is astonishing that this strange cult of the numbers was prevalent even in far flung Japan. The Japanese have seven deities. Worshipping them ensured life-long luck, happiness and prosperity.
At one time, every seventh year in a man’s life was believed to bring great challenges and great dangers. Seven cities vied with each other to be recognised as the birth place of Homer, the father of Greek poetry and tragedy.
A seventh child is believed to be lucky, while the Scots believe that such a child can cure diseases.
The 7th son of a 7th son will not only be doubly blessed, but also be gifted with extrasensory perception and can foretell the future. There is also a widespread belief that if a person’s date of birth is divisible by seven, he will be lucky.
As a result of the Seven Weeks’ War (1860) between Austria and Russia, the latter emerged as a predominant world power.
The Seven Years’ War (1756-63) was fought by France, Austria and Russia against Frederick the Great of Russia and Great Britain. France lost to Britain her colonies in North America and India.

Seven rishis
Ancient Hindus believed that there were seven rishis who, through prayer, penance and meditation, attained divinity and after their death, they went to dwell in the sky as seven stars (probably used with reference to the constellation Pleidaes as the Greeks called the Great Bear).
In medieval Europe, seven was associated with alchemy and witchcraft.
In fairy tales, too it was a magic number— Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty who fell asleep for seven years.
There is also the popular belief about the seven sleepers. They were the Christian youth of Ephaeus who had to face the persecution of the Roman emperor Decins (circa 250 BC).
They hid in a cave and went into a miraculous sleep which lasted for seven years.
It was our ancestors again who believed that the seven sciences— grammar, logic, mathematics, rhetoric, music, surgery (medicine) and astrology— had their equivalent in the seven seas which are the North and South Atlantic, the Arctic and the Antarctica the Indian and the North and South Pacific. The continents are also seven to match— Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, Australia and the uninhabited Antarctica.
The seven ages of man can be attributed to Christ himself who said that no one can hope to live as long as three scores and seven. Indeed no other number has as many associations and legends associated with it as this mysterious number.
Can you think of any more?