I’m not superstitious and I’ve never understood the issue with the number 13.
Depending on cultural background and/or inherited superstitions…..or just plain old human weirdness, the number 13 is either lucky, or unlucky. Friday the 13th is the day some people say they won’t travel, or even leave the house sometimes.
According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, more than 80 percent of hi-rise buildings in the United States do not have a 13th floor, and the vast majority of hotels, hospitals and airports avoid using the number for rooms and gates as well. OK, so many buildings don’t have a 13th floor….well…they do….it’s just numbered 14 usually…so people can say they work on the 14th floor and ignore the fact that they really work on the 13th floor?
“This fear would seem to play into a couple of popular theories for the number being branded as unlucky, both of which revolve around the appearance of a 13th guest at two ancient events: In the Bible, Judas Iscariot, the 13th guest to arrive at the Last Supper, is the person who betrays Jesus. Meanwhile ancient Norse lore holds that evil and turmoil were first introduced in the world by the appearance of the treacherous and mischievous god Loki at a dinner party in Valhalla. He was the 13th guest, upsetting the balance of the 12 gods already in attendance.”
“Researchers estimate that as many as 10 percent of the U.S. population has a fear of the number 13, and each year the even more specific fear of Friday the 13th, known as paraskevidekatriaphobia, results in financial losses in excess of $800 million annually, as people avoid marrying, traveling or in the most severe cases, even working. But what’s so unlucky about the number 13, and how did this numerical superstition get started?”
“An early myth surrounding the origin of the fear involved one of the world’s oldest legal documents, the Code of Hammurabi, which reportedly omitted a 13th law from its list of legal rules. In reality, the omission was no more than a clerical error made by one of the document’s earliest translators who failed to include a line of text—in fact, the code doesn’t numerically list its laws at all.” (Source: https://www.history.com/news/whats-so-unlucky-about-the-number-13)
On the flip side, some cultures consider the number 13 to be lucky.
The office tower that I worked from for years has a 13th floor. I remember when I started working there and told someone that I worked on the 13th floor, they responded with something along the lines of…”yeah, but you push the 14th floor button…right?”
Nope. I push 13.
I’ve taken this photo, or some version of it, before….but since I am back to working from the old office a couple of days a week, or more than that when large meetings are scheduled, like this week, and for some strange reason, pushing that 13 button makes me smile….just because it exists.
It makes me realize that someone, sometime, when they designed this building, had a logical brain that rejected silly superstitions.
And that pleases me.
