TETRAPHOBIA – THE MAGICAL NUMBER 4

Tetraphobia or the fear of number four is common in Southeast Asia. You may especially notice tetraphobia in China, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore and Taiwan. In these countries four is pronounced the same as the word for “death” (shi).

Many apartment and business buildings, hospitals, and hotels will skip the room and floor number four. The same goes for industry and military vessels. When visiting never give a present made up of four pieces, for example never present four flowers or four pieces of fruit.

However, La Spa’s logo is designed as a circle containing four leaves. The group of leaves also symbolizes our service offering centered on the number four: four homemade teas, four signature spa packages, four choices of essential oils, four core values, and so on…

Dismissing tetraphobia, the La Spa team has a very different attitude to the number four. In the wider world, this number carries more magical and auspicious meanings including:
Four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter representing the different phases of the passing year.

Four cardinal points: North, South, East and West.

Four sacred animals in Asia bringing luck and safety to humans: Dragon, Unicorn, Turtle and the Phoenix.
The ancient Greeks associated the number four with earthly balance, believing that everything was made up of four elements: earth, air, fire and water.

In the tarot the number four is the card of the Emperor.

In addition, many things are arranged in fours. There are four suits in a deck of cards, four points of the compass, and four phases of the moon. There are four wings on a bee and four leaves on a clover (if you are lucky).

By centering the brand around the number four, La Spa might surprise those holding traditional beliefs. But we believe four is the number of stability, perfection, order and completion of justice, reached through diligence and perseverance. These are values underpinning the La Spa brand and which we will maintain on our continuing journey.