The Big Six-O

Last Saturday, we celebrated T's mother's sixtieth birthday at the Duck Club in Lafayette (link here). A very nice dinner for a very deserving mother. Koreans traditionally celebrate two birthdays above all others, the first and sixtieth. In earlier times, reaching the age of sixty was quite an accomplishment with average life expectancy hovering somewhere in the fifties. But why the number sixty? Any symbolic meaning? Here is Wikipedia's response to the search request "number 60": (1) in the measurement of time, the number of seconds in a minute, and the number of minutes in an hour; (2) in geometry, the number of seconds in a minute, and the number of minutes in a degree; (3) a common speed limit, in miles per hour, for freeways in many US states; (4) in years of marriage, the diamond wedding anniversary; (5) the maximum number of marbles (game pieces) in Chinese checkers. The last entry was an intriguing possibility. One could humorously proclaim, "I reached sixty and haven't lost any of my marbles". A more plausible explanation for the symbolic importance of sixty may involve the Chinese sexagesimal cycle (link here). Anyhow, three parents down, just one more to go.