If we return to both fairy tales about the Sleeping Beauty, we can see Perrault used more pagan and Grimms more Christian relationships with numbers, but both with strong symbolic meaning. In Rome eight- and seven-day weeks coexisted and competed for several centuries until Emperor Constantine declared the seven-day week as the only legal way of counting days in calendars. But several old cultures used eight-day weeks in their calendars, including Burmese, Celts, and Etruscans. Seven is probably the most magic of all numbers (even more than three) and is derived from the four moon phases, each lasting seven days. While the numbers twelve and thirteen obviously allude to the last supper of Jesus Christ, numbers seven and eight need more explanation. In the version by Brothers Grimm twelve fairies are invited and the thirteenth throws a curse. There are seven fairies invited to a christening at Perrault.
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