As the clock ticks closer to midnight when the calendar clicks over to the sixth day of the sixth month, 2006, hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia - the fear of the number 666 - is taking hold.

Will the world end? Will someone give birth to the antichrist? Will Satan reclaim control?

Thirteen may be an unlucky number, but the Book of Revelation claims 666 is the number of the beast.

And not since the Y2K computer scare of December 31, 1999 has a date received so much attention.

Jesuit priest Richard Leonard from the Australian Catholics Bishops Conference said the furore was so great, there were reports some Australian women did not want to deliver their babies on this date.

"Parents can take heart from the fact that June 6 is not 06/06/06 at all," Father Leonard said in a bid to hose down the superstition.

"We know from other historical sources and from the New Testament ... that Dionysius' (who complied a list of dates of Jesus' birth, death and resurrection) dating was out.

"We assume that Satan knows that the sixth day of the sixth month in '06 was in fact the sixth of June 2002."

In any case, no heed should be paid to the so-called devil's number, which was part of a coded language and referred not to the devil incarnate but to the Roman Empire, considered to be the malevolent force in the world at the time.

Nevertheless the internet rumour mill is rife with speculation and warnings of bad things expected to happen, from meteors smashing into earth to babies being born with the mark of the devil.

Whatever happens, Tuesday's date may already prove ominous for some with the remake of the horror movie The Omen - a cult story of Damien the devil's spawn, is scheduled to open following scathing reviews in the weekend newspapers.

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