Everything’s better in twos
If two is your lucky number then last week's palindrome date line may have been a good day. There was no escaping the number on the day of twos, 2202-2022 - which of course fell on the second weekday of the week, "Twosday."
It's not a bad day to be born either, given you will never forget the group of twos. And, at West Gippsland Hospital, of course there were two babies born.
But the palindrome didn't end there - one of the babies was given a palindrome name by her parents - Ava.
Charlotte Gibbons and Thomas King had already chosen Ava as their preferred name but agreed it was a "very fitting name that was meant to be" when she arrived on Tuesday night.
Weighing 3.6kg, Ava Mary arrived three weeks early at 9pm. The special birth date was never considered as an option by her parents but after three weeks of irritable uterus (early contractions), Charlotte was admitted on Friday, February 18.
With the onset of labour on Tuesday afternoon, the Bunyip couple realised their daughter was likely to be born on the day of twos - although 2.22pm had already passed. Ava was the second baby born at the hospital on Tuesday, with Xavier Brenndan McIlvena arriving a few hours earlier at 4.52pm, weighing 3.2kg.
Xavier arrived right on cue, with the day of twos previously being set as the due date for his mum Phoebe Jones. But being her first, Phoebe said she didn't know what date to expect he would arrive on.
One thing is for sure, Ava and Xavier will learn their birthdates quickly.
In some cultures, palindrome dates are considered lucky, possibly because of the symmetry associated with such dates.
Palindrome dates also can be quite rare, depending on whether the dateline is read as day/ month/year as it is in Australia or month/day/year as the US does. When the month comes first, they occur more regularly.
February 2, 2020 (02-02-2020) was considered a universal palindrome because the eight digits were read the same way regardless of calendar style. Before that, the last universal palindrome was 909 years earlier on 11-11-1111.
The next universal palindrome will be 12-12-2121 and after that it will be 03-03-3030.