You might have come across plenty of things in life that made you think this is what is lucky for me, and certain situations happening bring you bad luck. But that's about luck. There is a thing called superstition, which is tied to us, mainly due to the society you live in.
The society around you tells you what brings luck and what can make things go south for you. Some of the honorary mentions are a cat crossing the path, walking under a ladder, things coming in threes, breaking a mirror. On the other hand, a rabbit's foot brings good luck.
One such subset is numbers. Lucky numbers, unlucky numbers, but what about the numbers with superstitions attached to them? These numbers are tied to the culture you live in.
Number 13
This number is often quoted in popular folklore and commonly used around in horror movies. Friday the 13th is one such movie.
Not only limited to that, but superstition takes effect on a mass level in real life too. While 13th is already associated with misfortune, add Friday to it, and Friday the 13th brings the fear of something terrible happening to another level.
Fear of Friday the 13th has a term known as Paraskevidekatria phobia. Each year, in the U.S., it results in a loss of $800 million as people avoid traveling, marrying, and even working.
There are lots of reasons attributed to this early on developed fear. It might be because of early mathematicians considering 12 to be a "perfect" number, so 13th by itself became ominous.
It extends to the 13th guest arriving at the Last Supper who betrayed Jesus in the Bible. Additionally, an old Norse mythology of a party of 12 Gods getting disrupted when a 13th guest, who was Loki, showed up, which led to death and destruction, exists.
Does Number 4 Sound Like Death to You Too?
While many buildings avoid number 13 in the U.S., coming to the Eastside, Japan, China and Korea have a superstition against number 4. This is mainly because while it is written differently, when pronounced, it is sometimes similar to "shi," which means death.
So, the hospitals and other buildings avoid this floor and directly skip to the 5th one. Pay attention to this the next time you enter any location in Japan.
666 Is the Devil's Number
It is part of folklore, countless horror movies, and is still something people try to avoid running into. The fear of this number is again tied back to the Bible.
In the apocalyptic Book of Revelation, the number 666 is referred to as the beast's number by John the Apostle. Many people will be apprehensive of getting 666 in their phone number, a hotel room number, or even a product price.
Simultaneously, the Chinese consider it a lucky number since 6 sounds close to "smooth" or "flowing." So, three sixes in a row mean good luck will flow.
17 Brings Fear
This number takes the bottom pile in Italy, as is the case with number 13 in America and 4 in Japan. When Italians write 17 as the roman numbers XVII, it can be rearranged to VIXI.
VIXI roughly translates to "my life is over" in Latin. Due to this bad connotation, the Italians skip over this number often.
This
is one reason why many carmakers and other manufacturers avoid assigning the
number 17 to their products or model numbers. Funnily, number 13 is actually
considered lucky in Italy as it represents St. Anthony in Italy.
Number 7 With a Difference in East and West
In the Western world, namely the USA, UK, France, 7 is considered to be a number with lots of excellent mystery in it. God made the world in 7 days, there are 7 deadly sins, etc.
Coming to the Eastern side, 7 is related to July, where the East pays respect to the dead. The houses must offer fruit and food to the dead, or it is considered to be a bad omen.
While there are plenty of numbers that have been attributed to the good and the bad around the world, the number that is closest to you are the ones you think define your luck.
Society
does end up shaping your preferences. But at the end of the day, like the rebel
that you are, you might end up picking whichever number that speaks to you, and
that creates all the magic.
Written by – Srishti Purohit
Edited
by – Sandhya R
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