Triskaidekaphobia: Difference between revisions
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Thirteen may be considered a "bad" number simply because it is one more than [[12 (number)|12]], which is a popularly used number in many cultures (due to it being a [[highly composite number]]). When a group of 13 objects is divided into two, three, four or six equal groups, there is always one leftover object. |
Thirteen may be considered a "bad" number simply because it is one more than [[12 (number)|12]], which is a popularly used number in many cultures (due to it being a [[highly composite number]]). When a group of 13 objects is divided into two, three, four or six equal groups, there is always one leftover object. |
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Some Christian traditions have it that at the [[Last Supper|the Last Supper]], [[Judas Iscariot|Judas]], the disciple who betrayed [[Jesus]], was the 13th to sit at the table, and that for this reason, 13 is considered to carry a curse of sorts. |
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Fear of 13 has also been linked to that fact that a [[lunisolar calendar]] must have 13 months in some years, while the solar [[Gregorian calendar]] and lunar [[Islamic calendar]] always have 12 months in a year. |
Fear of 13 has also been linked to that fact that a [[lunisolar calendar]] must have 13 months in some years, while the solar [[Gregorian calendar]] and lunar [[Islamic calendar]] always have 12 months in a year. |
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Revision as of 16:41, 20 October 2006
Triskaidekaphobia is a fear of the number 13. It is usually considered to be a superstition. A specific fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia.
Origins
Thirteen may be considered a "bad" number simply because it is one more than 12, which is a popularly used number in many cultures (due to it being a highly composite number). When a group of 13 objects is divided into two, three, four or six equal groups, there is always one leftover object.
Some Christian traditions have it that at the the Last Supper, Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table, and that for this reason, 13 is considered to carry a curse of sorts.
Fear of 13 has also been linked to that fact that a lunisolar calendar must have 13 months in some years, while the solar Gregorian calendar and lunar Islamic calendar always have 12 months in a year.
Triskaidekaphobia may have also affected the Vikings — it is believed that Loki in the Norse pantheon was the 13th god. This was later Christianized in some traditions into saying that Satan was the 13th angel.
The Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1686 BC) omits 13 in its numbered list. This seems to indicate a superstition existed long before the Christian era.
See also Friday the 13th for information concerning the traditions and superstitions surrounding this supposedly unlucky day.
Examples
Some buildings, such as One Canada Square in Canary Wharf (the tallest building in the UK), number their floors so as to skip the thirteenth floor entirely, jumping from the 12th floor to the 14th floor in order to avoid distressing triskaidekaphobics, or the building will have 12th floor and floor 12a or 12b instead. Many hotel/casino megaresorts in Las Vegas also lack a 13th floor. This is often applied to home or hotel room numbers as well. The same is also true of rows in airplanes.
The composer Arnold Schoenberg suffered from triskaidekaphobia. He was convinced that he would die aged 76 (because 7+6=13). Not only did his premonition come true, he also died on Friday 13 July, at 11:47 PM - 13 minutes to midnight.
The Nazi fighter plane developed from the He-112 was designated He-100 in order to avoid the designation Heinkel He 113, which was considered unlucky. In the United States, there has never been a F-13 fighter aircraft due to many pilots being superstitious. The Grumman F-14 Tomcat directly followed the Lockheed YF-12 Blackbird (a fighter prototype which was a close relative of the famed SR-71 Blackbird).
American singer-songwriter John Mayer had 14 tracks on his album Room for Squares, although the 13th is 0.2 seconds of silence and is not listed on the album cover. Likewise, Hot Hot Heat's album Elevator does not list a 13th track on its cover. On the CD the 13th track is four seconds of random noise. The reasoning behind it was that since some buildings do not have 13th floors, an elevator would not have a button for it.
Some refer to the near-fatal Apollo 13 mission to the moon as proof of 13 being unlucky. Apollo 13 was launched at 14:13 EST on April 11 1970 (11/4/70, digits summing to 13) from Complex 39 (three times thirteen). Widespread rumors that it launched at 13:13 local time (EST) are incorrect [1], although it is true that this corresponds to 13:13 CST - the local time in Houston, Texas, the location of mission control. Apparently, Apollo 13 was also going to go through LOI Lunar Orbit Injection on April 13. Others have noted that for a supposedly unlucky mission, the fact that the crippling accident occurred when the crew was best equipped to cope with it is a lucky occurrence in itself.
The Spanish motor racer Ángel Nieto is famous for saying that he achieved 12 + 1 World Motorcycling Championships. A bio-pic about him is thus titled 12 + 1.
The characters Stan and Hilda Ogden, in the English TV series Coronation Street, lived at 12a Coronation Street to avoid their address being number 13.
In Formula 1, there is no car with the number 13. The number has been removed after 2 drivers were killed in crashes — both driving cars numbered 13, however cars without the number 13 regularly crash as well.
The arrest and murder of the Knights Templar occurred on Friday October 13 1307. This event is said to be the origin of the supposed unluckiness of Friday the 13th.
Memphis International Airport in Memphis, TN does not have Gate A13, B13, or C13. Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip, New York does not have a gate 13, instead having doors labeled 12, 12A, and 14. Also, the Birmingham International Airport in Birmingham, AL does not contain a gate C13.
In the Disney film The Rescuers, one of the main characters, the mouse Bernard is highly triskaidekaphobic, refusing to step on the thirteenth step of a ladder or stairway. He is shocked to discover that his flight on Orville the albatross is Flight Thirteen.
On Friday 13 May 1992, several tornadoes occurred in small hill country towns of Texas. Those towns include Marble Falls, TX, Kingsland, TX, Jarrel, TX and other outlining areas.
Infamous serial killers Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer and Theodore Bundy all have 13 letters in their names.
Similar phobias
Tetraphobia, fear of the number 4 — in China, Japan, and Korea, it is not uncommon for buildings (including offices, apartments, hotels, hospitals, etc.) to have no 4th floor, and sometimes no floor having the digit 4 (14, 41, etc.) at all. Similarly-numbered rooms are also often omitted in any given floors in buildings. It is likewise common to find no block number ending in 4 in residential complexes. The Chinese pronunciation for the words "die" and "four" are identical, save for tone: "Die" and "four," in Mandarin Chinese, are si3 and si4, respectively, and a similar situation occurs in Cantonese. In extension, the Japanese and Korean pronunciation of these two words derived from Chinese, causing the three cultures to share the same fear for the number four. Interestingly, "13" is often considered a lucky number in these cultures since the word "three," pronounced "san," is similar to the pronunciation of the word "live" or "survive" in Chinese and Korean. Thus sometimes the block number "13A" would be in place where the block "14" should be in some residential complexes. Chinese cellphone numbers containing a 4 are sold at a far lower price, which is interesting: More than half of all 7-digit telephone numbers contain a 4 (or any other digit for that matter) somewhere.
In Italian culture, the number 17 is considered unlucky. When viewed as the Roman numeral, XVII, it can be re-arranged as VIXI, which in Latin means "I have lived", the perfect tense, implying "My life is over." (c.f. "Vixerunt", Cicero's famous announcement of an execution.) In Italy, it is not uncommon to notice that buildings do not have a 17th floor, or hotels do not have a room 17. The Italian airline carrier Alitalia does not have a row 17 on its aircraft, and neither does German carrier Germanwings, which flies to many Italian destinations. Renault sold its "R17" model in Italy as "R177."
Bibliography
- Lachenmeyer, Nathaniel (2004). 13: The Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 1-56858-306-0.