Lucky Number Seven
The world is filled with “unlucky” numbers. Let’s explore some of the most common, and see just why those numbers came to be so unlucky.
The United States — Number 13
As many of you know, 13 is a dangerous number in the U.S. It is estimated that 10% of the United States is afraid of the number 13, and this fear has real implications: the U.S. loses an estimated $800,000,000 each Friday the 13th as a result of people being afraid to do things, buy things, travel places, etc. More than 80% of high rises in the U.S. do not have a 13th floor, and countless hotels, airports, hospitals, and other buildings avoid using the number 13 on doors or rooms.
Fear of the number 13 is so widespread that there is actually a word for it: Triskaidekaphobia. So, why does everyone hate 13? There are a few theories.
The Code of Hammurabi
The Babylonians wrote a legal book called “The Code of Hammurabi” around 1780 B.C. There is a common belief that this book, for an unknown reason, omitted a thirteenth law. However, this actually is not quite true. In fact, the original book had no enumeration at all.
Instead, a translation written in 1910 accidentally omitted the 13th law, creating this myth that the Babylonians had some secret fear of 13.
Judas Theory
One of the more popular theories for why 13 is feared is that Judas (the disciple who betrayed Jesus) was the 13th person to sit at the last supper. However, the Bible itself actually does not mention the order in which the disciples sat at the table, so this mostly appears to be some hogwash invented by various writers in England starting around the early 1900s.
Further refuting this theory is the fact that Judeo-Christian culture has a number of positive references to the number 13. For instance, the Torah outlines the “Thirteen Attributes of Mercy” as the attributes of God.
Loki
An ancient Norse tradition says that Loki (the evil deceiver who fucked up everything in Norse mythology) was the 13th god in the Pantheon. Loki was also the 13th person to arrive at the funeral for Balder, whose death Loki orchestrated.
A related Norse tradition says that three norns (“female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men”) randomly showed up at some birthday for an infant, bringing the number of guests from 10 to 13, and cursing the infant.
The Number 12
A somewhat more likely explanation for the original reason why Western culture fears the number 13 is that the number 12 has long been regarded as a somewhat “perfect” number. The Sumerians developed a base 12 number system, calendars have 12 months, days have 12 hours, etc. It is hypothesized that, if ancient cultures considered 12 to be ideal, then it follows that the number just after 12 would be considered somewhat unlucky.
China — The Number 4
Most Asian countries are absolutely terrified of the number 4. Buildings never have a 4th floor and people avoid phone numbers or addresses which include 4. Taiwan and South Korea refuse to use the number 4 when assigning pennant numbers to ships, China starts their aircraft designation numbers at 5, and it is speculated that Beijing avoided bidding for a 2004 Olympics specifically because of cultural fear of the number 4, leading them to host the Olympics in 2008 instead.
Even worse, in certain very populated/urban centers where eastern and western cultures blend, both the number 13 and the number 4 are avoided. A funny example of this is that most apartment buildings in Hong Kong only have 79 out of every 100 floors, because 13, 14, and all other floors with “4” in them are avoided.
So, why does China fear 4? Well, the answer here is a little more clear than 13 in the U.S. In numerous dialects of Chinese, the word for “four” sounds a lot like the word for “death”. This extends to Vietnamese, Japanese, South Korean, and various other East Asian languages.
It’s not all building and addresses
Interestingly, fear of 4 in Asian culture has much further reaching effects than just floor labeling and phone numbers. A study by the British Medical Journal looked into mortality statistics among Asians in the United States over a 25 year period. They found that on the 4th day of a month, Asian people are 13% more likely to die of heart failure:
Unlike whites, Chinese and Japanese associate “four” and the fourth with death. Unlike whites, Chinese/Japanese cardiac deaths peak on the fourth day of the month. Because the fourth of the month is not objectively more hazardous than other days of the month, our data may provide the best evidence to date that cardiac mortality increases after psychological stress.
In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Charles Baskerville dies from a heart attack induced by stress. Because our data suggest that heart attacks increase on stressful occasions, our findings suggest that the “Baskerville effect” exists in fact as well as in fiction.
Italy — The Number 17
Now, onto our European brethren. If you take the roman numeral representation of 17, XVII, you may notice that it can be rearranged into VIXI. Why does this matter, you ask? Because in Latin, VIXI directly translates as “I lived”, which is more appropriately translated as “my life is over”, aka “I died”.
As you might have guessed, just like the U.S. and China, this has significant effects on Italy. The national airline has no row 17 on its planes. A famous Italian bobsled track (which hosted some of the 2006 Olympics) refused to call its 17th turn the 17th turn, and instead referred to it as “Senza Name” or “Without Name”.
Similarly, when the car manufacturer Renault brought their R17 model to Italy, they sold it as R177 instead, in order to prevent lost sales due to Italians being superstitious.
How do Italians survive their day-to-day lives with the number 17 everywhere? They use the “corno”, which is a basically a plastic little red pepper that supposedly brings good luck. Lol.
Afghanistan — The Number 39
The number 39 is seen as extremely shameful in Afghanistan, as it is supposedly linked to prostitution. No one really knows why this association came about, but the predominant theory seems to be that there was an extremely infamous pimp who lived at apartment number 39 and had the license plate # 39. It is also suggested that the number roughly translates into “dead cow”, which is a slang term for a pimp in Afghanistan.
Regardless of why this number is feared, it has wreaked havoc on Afghani society:
Apartments and cars with the number 39 are supposedly virtually unsellable in Afghanistan. In fact, people who own cars with the number 39 will regularly be verbally abused and honked at:
“When I drive around all the other cars flash their lights, beep their horns and people point at me. All my classmates now call me Colonel 39” — Afghani bro with a license plate that has 39 in it
People refuse to use a phone number with 39 in it.
“I receive lots of anonymous calls asking if I have got prostitutes. I am known as Mr 39 amongst my friends.” — Afghani bro with a phone that has 39 in it
People in Afghanistan won’t refer to themselves as 39 years old. They will say “one less than 40” instead.
Evidently, all this craziness over 39 drives many government officials crazy, as they have to add all these extra checks for all kinds of numerical assignments just to avoid 39.
