FWIW you should know that 1777 was a very hard hard year for the fledgling US of A. And yet '7' is as lucky to us as '8' is for you. And we were very superstitious in those years -- much less so now. Some years are learning experiences.
There were several cases in recent months when individual numbers of the date add up to 8, bad things occur for China. This was discussed by the Chinese on their website. The Earthquake in recent months was one of the case. Lucky charm is full of phenomenom, and not a guarantee for resistance against bad luck.