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Unlucky 13?

Unlucky 13 – or is it Lucky Thirteen?

By Bobby Blueblood

To almost everyone except Egyptians and the Chinese, the number thirteen has always been an outcast among numbers. It has had a bad reputation since the beginning of man when he/she learned to count, as far as we can tell.

But if you live in the USA maybe you should rethink the traditional bad luck number thirteen. The older folks might know about the thirteen in American history, but that’s a big might. I don’t remember learning about it in school. I had heard of a story about the number thirteen before, but I don’t think it was in school, and I totally forgot about it.


US Dollar Bill

US Dollar Bill, reverse side

Consider thirteen as unlucky, if you must, but if you live in the United States you’ve surely been carrying around the Lucky Thirteen around with you unwittingly since you were a youngster.

Since at least 1935 the design on the one dollar bill, the back of it, embraces the number thirteen. It’s part of the Great Seal of the United States. Its design bridges the ancient Egyptian allegorical motifs to our own times. The symbolic use of the number thirteen is arranged on each of the two sides of the seal.

If you look very closely you will see that on the left side of the rear of the dollar bill is an uncompleted pyramid. It has 13 steps to it. On the other side across from it the part of the Great Seal with the eagle on it, you will find the eagle holding thirteen arrows in the right talons. There are thirteen leaves and berries in the left talons of the eagle.

In case you didn’t know, that native American eagle is symbolic of invincibility, whereas in ancient Egypt the Egyptian golden eagle was the bird of regeneration. Hmm, that sounds pretty similar.

The design on the dollar bill was ordered by the then Secretary of the Treasury at the time. All Americans should know that the many uses of the number thirteen on the bill refer to the original thirteen colonies. That’s indeed a lucky number for the hundreds of Americans today.

There is more to say about the unlucky, or is it lucky nature of the number 13, but we will cover it in another article. Just be aware that even if you still think that thirteen is an unlucky number that if it were not for the original thirteen colonies in the U.S. you just might not be here today.

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Questions About Unlucky Number 13

Lisa asks…

Unlucky Number 13 or lucky?

Many events and myths say that no 13 is unlucky but many religion relate to13 as a lucky number. Whats your personal opinion or experience with this number?

admin answers:

It’s lucky for me, it’s been my front door number for 21 years 🙂

Be happy 🙂




William asks…

Ok this is going to sound crazy. my lucky number is 13 but its also my unlucky number. is this weird?

Yea so my lucky number is 13 but its also my unlucky number. every time its the 13th or anything to do with the number 13 it gives me good luck BUT at the end of the day something goes wrong or gets messed up or i lose something important….is this weird? lol

admin answers:

Yes this is love very weird :)las08




Linda asks…

Is the number 13 lucky or unlucky for you?

admin answers:

Luckyyyy. It’s my birth date. 😀

I’ve always loved number 13.




Mark asks…

Do you think the number 13 is lucky or unlucky?

admin answers:

I think it’s lucky. Most people prefer to avoid the number due to all the superstitions surrounding it. A lot of people that I know make up stories that involve bad things happening to them when the number 13 is involved. I don’t know, I just really don’t like even numbers anyway, but whenever something occurs revolving around the number 13, good things seem to follow! =]




Susan asks…

what number is your unlucky number and what is your lucky number?

or which number are you superstitious over

i hate the number 13
18 is my lucky number

admin answers:

No such thing.




Chris asks…

Is the number 13 considered to be a lucky number or an unlucky one?

admin answers:

I thought you may enjoy this, it is an extension of one of my previous answers involving the number 13. I believe all the hype about the number 23, is mainly revolved around pop culture and the movies, although I may be wrong on that point.

Origins
The origin of the Friday the 13th superstition has been linked to the belief that there were 13 people at The Last Supper of Jesus, who was crucified on Good Friday, but no evidence has been found that Friday 13th was considered especially unlucky until the 19th century. The number 13, however, has a long history of association with ill-luck. It has been linked to the 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. Another suggestion is that the belief originated in a Norse myth about twelve gods having a feast in Valhalla. The mischievous Loki gate-crashed the party as an uninvited 13th guest and arranged for Hod, the blind god of darkness, to throw a branch of mistletoe at Balder, the god of joy and gladness. Balder was killed instantly and the Earth was plunged into darkness and mourning as a result. Both the first and last explanations, however, seem more relevant to the superstition linked to having 13 people at the same table during a meal. There is also another theory that Friday the 13th of October 1307 was the day that Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of the French Knights Templar to get their money for the French treasury. One other note which predates all of the aforementioned is that the first Passover seems to have occurred on Friday the 13th. The death of the firstborns of Egypt occurred on a Shabbat on the 14th of Nisan in the evening. But the Jewish calendar counts days from sunset to sunset so this would have been Friday the 13th in terms of the gentile reckoning of the days. (Exodus 12:6) Feminists have argued that because of the lunar year and Friday being named after a goddess in most European pagan calendars, the fear of Friday the 13th is a patriarchal invention, associating femininity with bad luck.
Http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/ma…

So what is some of the facts behind these superstitions? Well, first of all, let’s distinguish between two fears:

1) Tridecaphobia – fear of the number 13

2) Paraskevidekatriaphobia – fear of Friday the Thirteenth

The first one, Tridecaphobia, stems from people who just plain hate the unlucky number 13. Period. They will go to all extents to avoid the number. I know a few of these people, and sometimes it gets to be quite annoying. One person in particular that I know is unbelievably superstitious. He won’t write a check out if it has the number 13 on it. He purposely avoids being thirteenth in anything. 13 does not exist for him. 12 then 14 does, but not 13. It’s not part of his vocabulary. Extreme, yes, but he has a phobia, after all.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia—don’t even ask me to pronounce it, but it’s quite real. People who have this fear will not go out of their house on that day (Friday the 13th), avoid sharp objects on that day—just avoid it all together. The whole day just doesn’t exist on their calendar.




Daniel asks…

How i can find a video about lucky number 7 in religions?

How i can find a video about lucky number 7 in religions?
hi buddies !!! i need your help
i want to give a lecture about lucky number 7 & 8 & unlucky number 13.
i need a video about number7 or unlucky 13 for lecture.
can you send me a video about it?
this is my e-mail
feyri_angel2020@hotmail.com
2

admin answers:

Try this link
www.bilderberg.org




George asks…

Why is 13 an unlucky number?

Okay I understand 13 is a superstitious unlucky number but I don’t remember why. Why is that? I’m curious because its my lucky number but not because I’m trying to be evil or anything.

admin answers:

There are many explanations. One explanation is that the number 13 brings bad luck because there were 13 people present at “The Last Supper” in the Bible. Another story comes from Norse mythology. One of the nastiest Norse gods, “Loki”, crashed a party at “Valhalla.” Valhalla was the “banquet hall of the gods.” There were 12 guests present at the hall until Loki arrived. With the mean-spirited Norse god as the 13th guest, the affair turned grim. The story goes that “Balder”, “the god of light, joy, and reconciliation”, died when Loki tricked Balder’s
sightless brother Hod into throwing mistletoe at him. Just like Kryptonite to Superman, Mistletoe, you see, was the only thing on earth that could kill Balder.

The famous mystery writer Agatha Christie (1890-1976) actually capitalized on the superstition that surrounds the number 13 when she penned 13 short stories and put them in a book titled, “The Thirteen Problems” in 1933. Each story featured her busybody sleuth, “Miss Jane Marple.” Christie did it again when she wrote the mystery, “Thirteen at Dinner”, which starred Peter Ustinov and Faye Dunaway. It hit the movie screen in 1985.

Whether 13 is actually an unlucky number or not will forever remain a mystery. There are many truths about the number 13, though. For example, it is a prime number. That means that it is only divisible -without there being a remainder- by the number 1 and itself. It is also a “Fibonacci Number.” A Fibonaci Number can be defined as “a number that is the sum of the two preceding numbers.” If you begin with 0 and 1, the sequence would run 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,45,79, and so on.

He General feeling that the number ’13’ is unlucky is just a superstition. This number is considered unlucky in almost all the countries of the world. Even many hotels don’t have a 13th floor. In some hospitals there is no bed bearing this number. Many people do not have 13 persons at a dinner table. Yet strangely enough there is no single accepted explanation for the origin of the superstition. According to some experts ’13’ was an unpopular number from the time man learned to count. By using his ten fingers and two feet as units, he could count up to 12. But beyond that, things were unknown and frightening to him.Whatever may be the reason of considering 13 as unlucky number, it has no specific basis. No number is lucky or unlucky. They are simply numbers, used in mathematical calculation.

In some ancient European religions, there were 12 good gods and one evil god; the evil god was called the 13th god. And a meeting of witches, called a Sabbath, required at least 13 witches.

Friday has also long been considered unlucky, perhaps because Christ died on Friday. Since Friday and the number 13 are both considered unlucky, then Friday the 13th is considered the unluckiest day of all!




Thomas asks…

What number is lucky or unlucky in your culture?

In the US 13 is unlucky and 7 is considered lucky. What numbers do people from your country consider lucky and unlucky?

admin answers:

69 Good

666 Bad

In Mexico

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