BRUSSELS (AP) – Belgians got married en masse on Saturday, hoping the triple sevens in the date, July 7, 2007, will bring them luck.

Many cities saw their wedding agenda bulge on Saturday. In western Ghent, weddings bulged to 27 instead of the usual 12 for a normal Saturday, city services said, and towns across Belgium had a similar hike in requests.

The number seven is considered lucky and lovers already planned a year in advance to take advantage of the seventh day, seventh month of 2007 constellation.

In Ghent, applications can only be made one year in advance and several couples had already sent in their e-mail requests just after midnight exactly a year before the date, the VRT network reported.

Usually city services only administer weddings in the morning, but because of the glut of requests they decided to extend the time until late afternoon.

[Copyright AP 2007]

Subject: Belgian news