The supposed unlucky nature of the number 13 has several theories of origin. Although several authors claim it is an older belief, no such evidence has been documented so far. In fact, the earliest attestation of 13 being unlucky is first found after theMiddle Ages in Europe.
In 1781,Antoine Court de Gébelin writes of this card's presence in theTarot of Marseilles that the number thirteen was"toujours regarde comme malheureux" ("always considered as unlucky").[3] In 1784,Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf cites Gébelin, and reaffirms that the tarot card number 13 is death and misfortune ("Der Tod, Unglück").[4]
Since at least 1774, a superstition of "thirteen at a table" has been documented: if 13 people sit at a table, then one of them must die within a year.[5] The origin of the superstition is unclear and various theories of its source have been presented over the years.
Da ich aus der Erfahrung weis, daß der Aberglaube nichts liebers, als Religionssachen, zu seinen Beweisen macht; so glaube ich bey nahe nicht zu irren, wenn ich den Ursprung des Gegenwärtigen mit der Zahl XIII, von der Stelle des Evangelii herleite, wo der Heiland, bey der Ostermahlzeit, mit zwölf Jüngern zu Tische saß. Since I know from experience that superstition loves nothing better than religious matters as its proofs, I believe I'm almost certainly unmistaken when I derive the origin of the matter of the number XIII from the passage of the Gospel where the Savior sat at table with twelve disciples at the Easter meal.
From the 1890s, a number of English-language sources reiterated the idea that at theLast Supper,Judas, thedisciple who betrayedJesus, was the 13th to sit at the table.[6] The Bible says nothing about the order in which the Apostles sat, but there were thirteen people at the table.
In 1968,Douglas Hill inMagic and Superstitions recounts aNorse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party inValhalla. The trickster godLoki, who was not invited, arrived as the 13th guest, and arranged forHöðr to shootBalder with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. This story was also echoed inHoliday folklore, phobias, and fun by folklore historian Donald Dossey, citing Hill.[7][8] However, in theProse Edda bySnorri Sturluson, the story aboutLoki andBalder does not emphasize that there are 12 gods, nor does it talk about a dinner party or the number 13.
The exposed lift shaft of an apartment block under construction. The lift shaft has numbers marking the levels, but the 13th level is marked with a heart instead and the 14th level is marked with an upside down 4 to adderessTetraphobia.
On Friday, October 13, 1307, the arrest of theKnights Templar was ordered byPhilip IV of France. While the number 13 was considered unlucky, Friday the 13th was not considered unlucky at the time. The incorrect idea that their arrest was related to the phobias surrounding Friday the 13th was invented early in the 21st century and popularized by the novelThe Da Vinci Code.[9]
In 1881 an influential group of New Yorkers, led by US Civil War veteran Captain William Fowler, came together to put an end to this and other superstitions. They formed a dinner cabaret club, which they calledthe Thirteen Club. At the first meeting, on January 13, 1881, at 8:13 p.m., thirteen people sat down to dine in Room 13 of the venue. The guests walked under a ladder to enter the room and were seated among piles of spilled salt. Many "Thirteen Clubs" sprang up all over North America over the next 45 years. Their activities were regularly reported in leading newspapers, and their numbers included five future US presidents, fromChester A. Arthur toTheodore Roosevelt. Thirteen Clubs had various imitators, but they all gradually faded due to a lack of interest.[10]
The British submarine,HMS K13, sank on 29 January 1917 while on her trials after diving with a hatch and some vents still open. Although she was raised and 48 men were rescued, 32 sailors and civilian technicians died. When repaired, she was renamedK22 but was later involved in multiple collisions with otherK-class submarines on 1 February 1918 in which a total of 103 men were killed, an event known as theBattle of May Island.[11] In the subsequentBritish L-class submarine, the number L13 was not used.[12]
Apollo 13 was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13:00CST and suffered an oxygen tank explosion on April 13 at 21:07:53 CST. It returned safely to Earth on April 17.[13][14]
Vehicle registration plates in Ireland are such that the first two digits represent the year of registration of the vehicle (i.e., 11 is a 2011 registered car, 12 is 2012, and so on). In 2012, there were concerns among members of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) that the prospect of having "13" registered vehicles might discourage motorists from buying new cars because of superstition surrounding the number thirteen, and that car sales and the motor industry (which was already doing badly) would suffer as a result. The government, in consultation with SIMI, introduced a system whereby 2013 registered vehicles would have their registration plates' age identifier string modified to read "131" for vehicles registered in the first six months of 2013 and "132" for those registered in the latter six months of the year.[15][16]1
Alternate mission patch of STS-41C, with a 13 and a black cat, as it landed on April 13th, which was a Friday the 13th and this was the mission originally scheduled as STS-13[17]
The disaster that occurred onApollo 13 may have been a factor that led to a renaming that prevented a mission called STS-13.[18][19]STS-41-G was the name of the thirteenth Space Shuttle flight.[20] However, originallySTS-41-C was the mission originally numbered STS-13[21][22] STS-41-C was the eleventh orbital flight of the space shuttle program.[23]
The numbering system of theSpace Shuttle was changed to a new one afterSTS-9.[24] The new naming scheme started with STS-41B, the previous mission was STS-9, and the thirteenth mission (what would have been STS-13) would be STS-41C.[24] The new scheme had first number stand for the U.S. fiscal year, the next number was a launch site (1 or 2), and the next was the number of the mission numbered with a letter for that period.[24]
In the case of the actual 13th flight, the crew was apparently not superstitious and made a humorous mission patch that had ablack cat on it.[24] Also, that mission re-entered and landed onFriday the 13th which one crew described as being "pretty cool".[24] Because of the way the designations and launch manifest work, the mission numbered STS-13 might not have actually been the 13th to launch as was common throughout the shuttle program; indeed it turned out to be the eleventh.[25][23] One of the reasons for this was when a launch had to be scrubbed, which delayed its mission.[26]
NASA said in a 2016 news article it was due to a much higher frequency of planned launches (pre-Challenger disaster).[24] As it was, the Shuttle program did have a disaster on itsone-hundred and thirteenth mission going by date of launch, which wasSTS-107.[27] The actual missionSTS-113 was successful, and had actually launched earlier due to the nature of the launch manifest.[28]
Hotels, buildings and elevator manufacturers have also avoided using the number 13 for rooms and floors based on triskaidekaphobia.[29] The 13-room (as of 1946)Boots Court Motel onU.S. Route 66 is one example; its rooms are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14.[30]
Several notable streets in London lack a No. 13, due to “the superstitions of London,” including “Fleet Street, Park Lane, Oxford Street, Praed Street, St. James’s Street, Haymarket and Grosvenor Street.”[31]
Panel from an elevator in a residential apartment building inShanghai. Floors 4, 13 and 14 are missing, because of thesimilarity between the pronunciation of the word "four" and "death" in Chinese.
Thethirteenth floor is a designation of alevel of a multi-level building that is often omitted in countries where the number13 is considered unlucky.[32][33] Omitting the 13th floor may take a variety of forms; the most common include denoting what would otherwise be considered the thirteenth floor as level 14, giving the thirteenth floor an alternative designation such as "12A" or "M" (the thirteenth letter of theLatin alphabet), or closing the 13th floor to public occupancy or access (e.g., by designating it as amechanical floor).
Reasons for omitting a thirteenth floor include triskaidekaphobia on the part of the building's owner or builder, or a desire by the building owner or landlord to prevent problems that may arise withsuperstitious tenants, occupants, or customers. In 2002, based on an internal review of records, Dilip Rangnekar ofOtis Elevators estimated that 85% of the buildings with at least thirteen floors[clarification needed] with Otis brand elevators did not have a floor named the 13th floor.[34] Early tall-building designers, fearing a fire on the 13th floor, or fearing tenants' superstitions about the rumor, decided to omit having a 13th floor listed on their elevator numbering.[34] This practice became commonplace, and eventually found its way into American mainstream culture and building design.[34]
Vancouver city planners have banned the practice of skipping 4s and 13s, since it could lead to mistakes byfirst responders, for example going to the wrong floor.[35]
The origin of skipping the thirteenth floor when installing elevators is not known. However, during the advent of early skyscrapers, New York architectural critics warned developers not to exceed the height of the 13th floor.[36] These critics insisted that buildings rising above the 13th floor (130 feet or 40 metres) would lead to increased street congestion, ominous shadows and lower property values. Nevertheless, in a work published in 1939, sociologistOtto Neurath compared the use ofmoney in an economy, which he saw as unnecessary, to the superstition of not installing the thirteenth floor: merely asocial convention.
Skipping: Most commonly, 13 is skipped, as in:12,14,15... The floor labeled "14" on the elevator is the thirteenth floor and the number 13 is skipped on the elevator console. In such buildings, floors after 12 are nominally incorrect, with their labeled floor being one higher than the actual floor. Many ships, including cruise liners have omitted having a 13th deck due to triskaidekaphobia. Instead, the decks are numbered up to 12 and skip straight to number 14.[37]
12A, 12B, 14: Sometimes to keep numbers consistent the 13th floor is simply renumbered as12A or12B, as in:12,12A,14.., or12,12B,14; this does not affect the numbers of the higher floors. Likewise,14 could be used for the 13th floor and14A or14B could be used for the 14th floor.
Special designations: Other buildings will often use names for certain floors to avoid giving a floor on the building the number 13 designation. One such example is theRadisson Hotel inWinnipeg,Manitoba, where the 13th floor is called thepool floor. Another example is theSheraton on the Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, where the 13th floor consists solely of arestaurant. A third example is theTrump International Hotel and Tower Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, where the 13th floor is themezzanine floor.
Uninhabited 13th floor: sometimes, the floor is put to some other use, such as amechanical floor. Such usage is sometimes the subject ofconspiracy theories (seebelow).
Letter M: In Richmond, Virginia, the Monroe Park Towers has a 13th floor, but it is used for mechanical equipment and is only accessible from the freight elevator or the stairs. The M designation on the elevator buttons of the freight elevator can also be construed as meaning theMechanical level in this particular building, or as aMezzanine level.
Split-level apartments* Sometimes, a tenement block will contain split-level apartments where the units themselves contain internal staircases and the main elevators for the building therefore do not stop on every floor. One example is Princess Towers inKingston, Ontario, which has16+1⁄2 stories excluding the roof-top. The elevators stop at B (basement), G (ground), 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15th floors only. In this case, the unmarked 11th and 13th floors are accessed within units on the marked 12th floor.
In a 2007 Gallup poll,[38] 13 percent of American adults reported that they would be bothered if given a hotel room on the thirteenth floor, while 9 percent indicated that they would be sufficiently bothered to request a room on a different floor. Research on thirteenth-floor effects on real estate values presents a mixed picture. Several prominent American real estate developers have claimed that they are unaware of any reduction in the value of thirteenth-floor offices or apartments.[32] On the other hand, in studies conducted in Russia, Antipov and Pokryshevskaya,[39] and Burakov[40] found that thirteenth-floor apartments were less likely to sell compared to apartments on twelfth or fourteenth floors. This effect, however, was eliminated if developers offered buyers a 10% or greater discount on the cost of thirteenth-floor apartments.
The 4th floor is designated "F" in this South Korean building. The 13th floor, however, is labelled such.
Number4 (Tetraphobia). InChina,Hong Kong,Taiwan,Singapore,Japan,Korea, andVietnam, as well as in some other East Asian and South East Asian countries, it is not uncommon for buildings (includingoffices,apartments,hotels) to omit floors with numbers that include the digit 4, and Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia's1xxx-9xxx series of mobile phones does not include any model numbers beginning with a 4 (exceptSeries 40,Nokia 3410 andNokia 4.2). This originates fromClassical Chinese, in which the pronunciation of the word for "four" (四,sì in Mandarin) is very similar to that of the word for "death" (死,sǐ in Mandarin), and remains so in the other countries'Sino-Xenic vocabulary (Koreansa for both; Japaneseshi for both; Vietnamesetứ "four" vs.tử "death"). InSouth Korea, buildings tend to include the fourth floor in spite of similar pronunciation issues in the Korean language, though some newer buildings may substitute the letter F in the place of the number 4.
Friday the 13th (Paraskevidekatriaphobia or Friggatriskaidekaphobia) is considered to be a day of bad luck in a number ofwestern cultures. InGreece and some areas of Latin America, Tuesday the 13th is similarly considered unlucky.2
Number17 (Heptadecaphobia). In Italy, perhaps because in Roman numerals 17 is written XVII, which can be rearranged to VIXI, which in Latin means "I have lived" but can be aeuphemism for "I am dead." In Italy, some planes have no row 17 and some hotels have no room 17.[47] In Italy, cruise ships built and operated byMSC Cruises lack a Deck 17.[48]
Number39 (Triakontenneaphobia). There is a belief in some parts of Afghanistan that the number 39 (thrice thirteen) is cursed or a badge of shame.[49]
Dan Marino's 13 jersey in theHall of FameTaylor Swiftperforming with the number 13 written on her handTaylor Swift fans write the number 13 on their hands to emulate her
In some regions, 13 is or has been considered a lucky number. For example, prior to the First World War, 13 was considered to be a lucky number in France, even being featured on postcards and charms.[50] In more modern times, 13 is lucky inItaly except in some contexts, such as sitting at the dinner table.[51] In Cantonese-speaking areas, including Hong Kong and Macau, the number 13 is considered lucky because it sounds similar to the Cantonese words meaning "sure to live" (as opposed to the unlucky number 14 which in Cantonese sounds like the words meaning "sure to die").Colgate University was started by 13 men with $13 and 13 prayers, so 13 is considered a lucky number. Friday the 13th is the luckiest day at Colgate.[52]
A number of sportspeople are known for wearing the number 13 jersey and performing successfully. On November 23, 2003, theMiami Dolphins retired the number 13 forDan Marino, who played quarterback for the Dolphins from 1983 to 1999.Kurt Warner, St. Louis Rams quarterback (NFL MVP, 1999 & 2001, andSuper Bowl XXXIV MVP) also wore number 13.Wilt Chamberlain, 13-time NBA All-Star, has had his No. 13 Jersey retired by the NBA's Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers; Los Angeles Lakers, Harlem Globetrotters, and Kansas University Jayhawks, all of which he played for. In 1966, thePortugal national football team achieved their best-ever result at the World Cup final tournaments by finishing third, thanks to a Mozambican-born striker,Eusebio, who has scored nine goals at World Cup – four of them in a 5-3 quarterfinal win overNorth Korea – and won theGolden Boot award as the tournament's top scorer while wearing the number 13. In the1954 and1974 World Cup finals, Germany'sMax Morlock andGerd Müller, respectively, played and scored in the final, wearing the number 13.[53] More recent footballers playing successfully despite wearing number 13, includeMichael Ballack,Alessandro Nesta, andRafinha.[54] Among other sportspeople who have chosen 13 as their number, areVenezuelansDave Concepción,Omar Vizquel,Oswaldo Guillén andPastor Maldonado due to the number being considered lucky in Venezuelan culture. Swedish-born hockey playerMats Sundin, who played 14 of his 18 NHL seasons for theToronto Maple Leafs, setting team records for goals and points, had his number 13 retired by the team on 15 October 2016.
Outside of the sporting industry, 13 is used as a lucky number by other individuals, includingTaylor Swift who has made prominent use of the number 13 throughout her career.[55]
Someconspiracy theorists have suggested that the thirteenth floor in government buildings is not really missing, but actually contains top-secret governmental departments, or more generally that it is proof of something sinister orclandestine going on. This implication is often carried over, implicitly or explicitly, intopopular culture; for example in:
TheSuperman story inAction Comics #448 (June 1975) featured a secret thirteenth floor used to teleport alien tourists from another planet to visit Earth.
The "Night of Owls" storyline inBatman features the thirteenth floors of Gotham's buildings being used as bases by the assassins of a secret society that has ruled Gotham for generations.
The episode "Grey 17 Is Missing" of the TV seriesBabylon 5 has a similar theme of a "missing" floor number actually containing a hidden floor with dark secrets.
The Rockford Files episode "Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, But Waterbury Will Bury You".
The first-season episode "Ghost In The Machine" of the TV seriesThe X-Files features a scene where the Central Operating System reads aloud each distinct level, omitting the thirteenth floor as the elevator ascends.
In theMarvel Comics event storylineIron Man 2020, an army of rebel robots and artificial intelligences have a safe haven in the form of an extra-dimensional plane of existence made of solid light called the Thirteenth Floor that can be reached through any elevator inManhattan, and access to it manifests in the form of a button for the thirteen floor that only cyber beings can see that appears off to the side of a regular floor button panel.
In the Canadian cartoon series,Freaky Stories, an accountant becomes obsessed with finding the 13th floor, only become trapped with dozens of like-minded men by their collective obsession.
^1 The main reason for this was stated to be to increase the number of car sales in the second half of the year. Even though 70% of new cars are bought during the first four months of the year, some consumers believe that the calendar year of registration does not accurately reflect the real age of a new car, since cars bought in January will most likely have been manufactured the previous year, while those bought later in the year will be actually made in the same year.
^2 Tuesday is generally unlucky in Greece for the fall of Byzantium Tues 29th May 1453.[56] In Spanish-speaking countries, there is a proverb: En martes no te cases, ni te embarques 'On Tuesday, do not get married or set sail'.[57]
^Breitkopf, Johann Gottlob Immanuel (1784).Versuch, den Ursprung der Spielkarten, die Einführung des Leinenpapieres, und den Anfang der Holzschneidekunst in Europa zu erforschen. 1, Welcher die Spielkarten und das Leinenpapier enthält (in German). p. 20.
^Nick Leys,If you bought this, you've already had bad luck, review of Nathaniel Lachenmayer'sThirteen: The World's Most Popular Superstition, Weekend Australian, 8–9 January 2005
^"James D. A. van Hoften"(PDF). Oral History Project. NASA Johnson Space Center. 5 December 2007.Archived(PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved20 July 2013.
^"Terry J. Hart"(PDF). Oral History Project. NASA Johnson Space Center. 10 April 2003.Archived(PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved20 July 2013.
^Davies, Owen (2018).A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination, and Faith During the First World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 136.ISBN9780198794554.
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