892
Don't grow older than 255 or else it will overflow
(feddit.org)
A photo of a cake with 8 candles in a row. The first and fifth candle from the right are lit. The caption reads "Happy 17th Birthday"
Just curious since you seem knowledgeable, is there a connection between those societies? Or is it just chance they both choose 8?
I am not knowledgeable about this, I just checked the Wikipedia page to confirm my understanding of the joke and found these very interesting historical uses.