All around the world, people will be celebrating Chinese New Year with bright displays of lanterns, family dinners and the exchanging of those lucky red envelopes. The Chinese zodiac follows the lunar calendar and, as such, the date shifts each year, with 2016 a particularly auspicious year as celebrations will begin on 8 February.
In Chinese culture, the No. 8 is believed to bring good fortune, and to honour this tradition, many jewellery houses have incorporated this lucky symbol into luxurious designs.
A whole collection of Chopard jewellery has been created around the propitious number, entitled Happy 8. The designs are part of the brand’s Happy Diamonds family and have rolling diamonds captured within the inner circles of the figure of eight.
The lucky looping shape also features in some Tiffany jewellery designs, while the central design motif in the Infinity collection is actually an infinity symbol, which is very similar in form to the No. 8.
The power of eight is further enhanced this year by the fact that it is one of three numbers thought to be lucky for those born in the Year of the Monkey, which we now find ourselves in. The other lucky numbers for monkeys are one and seven.
Sarah Ho has created an innovative collection of rose gold and diamond rings called Numerati, which cover all numbers from one to nine, so you can take your pick of your own personal lucky digit. The beauty of this collection, the creation of which took the London-based designer two years to crack, is that while each ring looks like a number when off the finger, as soon as you put it on, the number is hidden - keeping your lucky number a secret, and the styling subtle.
Another original jewellery design based on this theme is the Lucky Number diamond ring by Solange Azagury-Partridge. This chunky piece, which has been made from white gold blackened with rhodium, has seven diamond bars - created by a tiny baguette-cut diamond flanked by two trillion-cut diamonds - which can be individually rotated to show or hide the diamond. By playing with this feature, you can set the diamond bars in a way that will create a digital-style number of your choice.
And for those who put little stock in superstition, why not throw caution to the wind and invest in a Lucky Number 13 yellow gold necklace from Laura Gravestock’s Written collection. Singer Taylor Swift already has, and judging by her recent string of hits, perhaps it’s not always unlucky for some.
