Why is the number 13 unlucky?

Today, you will hear sentences from us that are far from science than you are used to, about how superstitions and beliefs affect people. A ton of conspiracy theories about the number 13 and where it comes from. Speaking of conspiracies, not all of them, of course, but when you look at it in general, this area far from science attracted our attention, because sociologically, people have really convinced themselves that this number is unlucky. According to research, the number thirteen, among all bad luck beliefs, affects people in countless ways today.

The number 13 has been considered unlucky, especially by Christianity. The number 13 is the only integer after 12 and before 14. 13 is also a prime number. Not only is it prime, it is also a ''lasa number''. Lasa numbers are numbers that are prime when written backwards. 13 and 31 are both prime and lasa numbers. 13 is a Fibonacci number and therefore part of the golden ratio. There are 13 Archimedean solids.

There is really incredible information about the number 13 that doesn't make us lose our minds. For example, the French do not use 13 in their home addresses. In Italy, the national lottery does not include thirteen. National and international airlines skip the thirteenth row of seats on airplanes. In America, the floors of skyscrapers, condominiums, cooperatives and apartment buildings are numbered twelve followed by fourteen. Recently, an experiment was conducted to test the power of this superstition: In a new, luxurious apartment building, one floor was temporarily numbered thirteen. All the apartments on the other floors were taken, leaving only a few apartments on the thirteenth floor. But they were taken only when the floor number was changed to 12-B.

So where did this fear of the number thirteen, known as "triskaidekaphobia", come from?

In the Code of Hammurabi, which emerged in Mesopotamia and is the oldest and best-preserved written code of laws in history, 282 articles were written in cuneiform on a 2-meter-high cylindrical stone. However, there is no 13th article. Probably, even in those days, the number 13 was believed to be unlucky.

Persians living in what is now Iran would not leave their homes on the 13th of the month to avoid bad luck and bad events.

There is no 13th floor button in the elevators of some luxury hotels in the world. There are also no rooms with the number 13 or 13th floors.
In some other parts of the world, the door numbers of houses are written as ''12+1'' so that they do not become 13.
In tarot cards, the 13th card is the ''death'' card.
Some coincidences that often occur are attributed to the unlucky nature of the number 13. For example, in 1970, the number 13 in the name of NASA's 7th manned moon mission, the "Apollo 13" project, was shown to be the reason for its failure.

Despite all this, the number 13 is seen as lucky in some countries. For example, Italy sees it as lucky. In Italy, the number 17 is seen as unlucky.

On the other hand, the United States of America was founded by 13 colonies, or today's 13 states. That's why there are 13 steps in the incomplete pyramid on the dollar bill, and many symbols such as 13 letters, 13 stars, 13 arrows, and 13 leaves on the writing on it.

In the 1880s, a "13 Club" was established to break this 13-person belief. The members of this club - including US presidents - came together on the 13th of every month and ate at tables set for 13 people.

This concept dates back at least to pre-Christian Scandinavian mythology. There is a feast in Valhalla to which twelve gods are invited. Since Loki, the god of evil and strife, arrives uninvited, he increases the number to thirteen. In the struggle that begins to drive Loki away from the feast, Balder, the most beloved god, is killed.j

This is one of the oldest written sources referring to the bad luck surrounding the number thirteen. The superstition in question spread from Scandinavia to the south and all of Europe. It was well established in the countries around the Mediterranean by the time Christianity came. However, the reinforcement of this belief is attributed by folklorists to the most famous meal in history. In other words, Jesus' last meal. Jesus and his apostles were thirteen in total, and Jesus was crucified in less than twenty-four hours.

Mythologists see the Norse legend as the forerunner of the Christian meal; they emphasize the parallels between the traitor Judas and the god of evil and strife Loki, the slain God Balder and the crucified Jesus. What is indisputable is that with Christianity, inviting thirteen people to dinner became a sign of disaster.

As with any superstition, once the belief is established, people consciously or unconsciously expect the predicted events to occur. For example, in 1798, the British magazine Gentelman’s Magazine quoted the insurance statistics of the day and in one section revealed that an average of one in thirteen people would die during the year, thus igniting the thirteen-year belief. Of course, previous and later insurance tables would have provided different data. Yet for many English people, this was nothing more than science confirming the superstition.

Ironically, in America, thirteen is considered a lucky number. In fact, it is part of many national symbols. For example, the unfinished pyramid on the back of the American dollar bill has thirteen steps; the bald eagle holds an olive branch with thirteen leaves and thirteen fruits in one claw and thirteen arrows in the other; the eagle has thirteen stars above its head. Of course, none of these are superstitious; they are merely lucky symbols commemorating the country’s thirteen colonies.

The efforts to explain the most ominous of days focus on the horrific events that are claimed to happen on that day. According to tradition, on Friday the thirteenth, Eve tempted Adam with an apple; Noah's ship set sail during the great flood; the Tower of Babel was struck by the confusion of languages; Solomon's temple was destroyed and Jesus was crucified.

The real origin of this superstition seems to be another Scandinavian myth.

Friday, or Friday in English, takes its name from the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility, Frigga. When the Scandinavian and Germanic tribes accepted Christianity, Frigga was accused of being a witch and exiled to the top of a mountain. It was believed that every Friday, this vengeful goddess held a meeting with eleven witches and the devil - thirteen people in total - and prepared a plan for the evil tricks of fate for the next week. Therefore, Friday was known as the "Witches' Day Off" in Scandinavia for centuries.

No matter how you look at it, the number 13 has had a greater impact on the history of humanity than mathematics, and although it may seem simple, it has affected people's lives. Therefore, believing or not believing is of course a person's own choice and no one can interfere with this. We are only responsible for explaining, the rest is up to the Christian world and those who believe that 13 is unlucky.