This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
What is it about humans that forces us to seek meaning, significance, or at least a little good luck from a date on the calendar?
Take today. Write it out in numerals —11/11/11 — and otherwise rational Utahns yearn for the six-digit lineup to mean something.
In some cases, people are aiming high for 11/11/11. Followers of various New Age philosophies believe the date, derived from analysis of the ancient Mayan calendar and the number of steps in their pyramids, calculations too Byzantine to explain here, will bring all humanity into a new age of awareness and unity.
(If you buy this idea, you'll want to ignore less optimistic analysts who believe Mayan time keepers predicted a 2012 apocalypse.)
Alex Hoggan, owner of the Water Wellness Center, said, 11/11/11/ "is a portal — cosmically, the date that we activate ourselves and step through the portal." He is sponsoring a "Cosmic Convergence" conference tonight that will include a slate of shamans, alchemists, "evolutionaries" and spiritual healers.
"We want to unite everyone on the planet," Hoggan says. "It's an evolutionary call. We have reached the point that we will recognize that we are the co-creators with God."
Noel Vallejo, chief executive of TestOut in Pleasant Grove, isn't setting his sights quite so high. His company came into being on Nov. 11, 1991, making today its 20-year anniversary.
Vallejo has rented Salt Lake City's The Leonardo museum to throw a party of Mayan proportions, complete with a band and banquet. He calls the party a thank-you to his 45 employees and their extended families, along with customers and everyone who helped along the way. The guest list is pushing 1,500 — apparently Vallejo didn't have the heart to limit the number of well-wishers to a more auspicious 1,100.
For Vallejo, the date is auspicious only in that TestOut has survived. Through good fortune, and a recession that sent unemployed workers looking for new careers, Vallejo says his company has prospered because it offers innovative retraining materials in information technology.
"It just happens that we are hitting our 20th anniversary on 11/11/11, and we wanted to make a big deal out of it," he says.
Working with Deseret Industries Employment Centers, TestOut awarded 500 grants for IT training as part of the company's year-long celebration of public service. "A lot of businesses don't survive as long as we did and we wanted to find ways to show our gratitude," Vallejo says. "Every month on the 11th, we celebrated by serving the community. We painted curbs, did clean ups and collected books."
For one of those acts of service, the company offered free soft drinks to customers at a Pleasant Grove gas station. Of course, a free drink at isn't exactly a cosmic-portal kind of event, but perhaps a bit more pragmatic.
A free pop is a long way from another 11/11/11 remembrance happening today. At "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918, the belligerents signed the armistice at Versailles that ended the Great War that was supposed to end all wars.
Since then, the world has had what seems to be endless war, so Armistice Day in the U.S. has come to be called simply Veterans Day.
Of course, the last time were faced with 11/11/11 was a century ago, shortly before the outbreak of World War I. At the time, there was apparently little fanfare connected with the date.
The Nov. 11, 1911 Salt Lake Tribune didn't even mention the once-in-a-hundred-year date. And from a scan of other local papers, apparently no portals opened. People continued to be massacred in China, shot on Salt Lake City's State Street and, as one paper reported, "clothes-line thieves were merciless."
Only The Salt Lake Evening Telegraph noted, on page 20, the unique date in an article headlined: "11.11:11, 11-11, '11" — Look At It Well; You Will Hardly Live To See It Again." An energetic Telegraph reporter even called Salt Lake's telephone central exchange 48 minutes and 49 seconds before noon to hear the operator give this date and time: "11.11:11,11-11 and 11 seconds."
Unfortunately, for those of us desperate for a similar lucky omen, local time-of-day phone services have gone the way of The Telegraph. However, if you were to call the United States Naval Observatory Time Voice Announcer in Colorado Springs, Colo., a distinguished voice will offer you the hour, minute and second (but probably not the 11th second).
Somehow, watching your computer or cell phone's clock hit the cosmic sequence of elevens today just won't ring with the same significance.
A wave of unity on 11/11/11
What • Freeze mob
About • A local group will meet at The Gateway to attempt to break the Guinness Book's world record for the longest freeze mob at 11 minutes and 11 seconds.
When • 11:11 a.m.
Background info • To join the event, find details at http://bit.ly/tDqG6V
More • To see a video of a freeze mob, visit http://bit.ly/vF5vOi.
What • The United States Naval Observatory Time Voice Announcer
Info • Call 719-567-6742