Numerology Horror: The Thirteenth Edition

Author: Stephanie Against Superstition Witherspoon

The number thirteen has a famous history of bad luck. It all started from friday the thirteenth which is associated with Halloween and now people believe that the number thirteen itself is bad luck. Many hotels and hospitals don’t have a thirteenth floor because of this superstition and if they did I am sure that society would frown upon the hospital.

“Friday the 13th: The Empirics of Bad Luck”, written by Jan Fidrmuc and J. D Tena, compares people born on the thirteenth to people born on the twelfth and fifteenth. The surveys they conducted showed that people born on the thirteenth are less likely to be employed or get married, and they earn lower wages. I believe that people with superstitions about the number thirteen just wake up and assume their day is going to be horrible, and as a result of their thoughts it is. In the netflix series “13 Reasons Why”, the protagonist commits suicide and blames 13 people for her death; for this reason I can see why someone would think the number thirteen is unlucky. One spiritual reason why the number thirteen is considered to be unlucky is because Jesus Christ's had his last supper with the twelve apostles making it thirteen people total.This is unlucky because one of the twelve apostles, Judas Iscariot, betrayed Jesus Christ. Peoplenow avoid having dinner with thirteen people.

Although there are various reasons why the number thirteen is said to be unlucky, I have found positive research. The article “Numerology Of Number 13: Hidden Meanings Behind Thirteen”,suggests that the number thirteen has a powerful message behind it meaning that positive change is on the way. Many people hold on to the superstitious history of the number thirteen, assuming likewise unlucky things to take place in today's society on the thirteenth day.

Triskadekaphobia is very common because people don’t take the time to notice the good signs of the number thirteen.

Love On The Thirteenth Floor​ by Gerald W. Deas expounds on good things that come from the number thirteen. He focuses on bible books Second Corinthians and Hebrews which only have thirteen chapters. The thirteenth chapter in each book talks about faith, hope, and charity giving people reasons to believe the number thirteen isn’t as unlucky as society makes it out to be. The superstition of the number thirteen is never proven to be true, but it continues to be remembered.

Lauren Garnier published “Why Are We Afraid of Friday the 13th and the Number 13?” asserts that many harsh, biblical events are said to have taken place on a Friday; Jesus was crucified,Eve tempted Adam, Abel was slayed by Cain, and the great floods began. In Britain people were hung on Fridays and citizens in Rome were executed. For these reasons, Friday has a bad history.

Works Cited: 

Garnier, Laurent. “Why Are We Afraid of Friday the 13th and the Number 13?” Youtube, posted by The Infographics Show, 9 April 2018.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLi80PYON-c​.

Deas, Gerald W. “Faith and Love on the 13th Floor.” ​New York Amsterdam News​, vol. 96, no.48, 24 Nov. 2005, p. 32. ​Academic Search Premier​, http://ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=19104395&site=ehost-live&scope=site​.

Triskaidekaphobia. ​nd​.​ “BE AFRAID : Phobia; Triskaidekaphobia, Fear of Number 13.” ​Know It All Idea.​ posted by ederlyn. 5 Nov. 2010.

“Numerology Of Number 13: Hidden Meanings Behind Thirteen.” ​Numerology Secrets,  ​17 March 2015, ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM7n2qVGzAE​.​

13 Reasons Why. ​Directed by Brian Yorkey, ​Netflix​, 2017.

Links for further research:

Top 10 WorldWide Superstitions about number 13
https://listsurge.com/top-10-worldwide-superstitions-number-13/​ 
this article explains the meaning of triskaidekaphobia and lists the thirteen historical reasons why the number thirteen is unlucky.

Why Is 13 unlucky?
​​https://www.livescience.com/14147-number-13-bad-luck.html​ 
This website talks about why people consider the number thirteen to be unlucky although it hasn’t been proven.

What are the 13 reasons why Hannah Baker killed herself in Thirteen Reasons Why
https://www.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_13_reasons_why_Hannah_Baker_kills_herself_in_Thirteen_Reasons_Why​ 
This website gives the thirteen reasons why Hannah Baker committed suicide.

Unlucky Number 13

Lilly Shoaf

Along the years an unlucky number has been passed down through myths and words left unspoken rather by actions left by the unlucky day known by Friday the 13th. According to many different articles I have read, there are to be many different superstitions about the number. An article entitled “The New Encyclopedia Of Judaism.” talks about different religions and how the number affects them. A few religions the number haunts the most is Christianity, Judaism, and Romans. In the article “13 Reasons People Think the Number 13 is Unlucky”  it’s more explained of what those reasons are. In Christian beliefs there was thirteen people at the Last Supper. It’s said that Judas Iscariot is the one who betrayed Jesus and was the thirteenth man to take his place at the table. With Christianity, many Christians believe that Jesus was crucified on Friday. Researchers, however, believe that it wasn’t a case of Friday the thirteenth. It was possibly Friday, April 3rd. Many Christians believe that Cain and Abel’s debacle took place on that date. Another Norse legend that article talks about is a legend that has twelve Gods sitting down at a banquet when the thirteenth God, Loki, shows up, whom is uninvited. He kills one of the other Gods, which led to events that resulted in the death of a bunch of Gods, a slew of natural disasters, and the eradication of everything on Earth except for two human survivors.

Everyone has heard of Friday the 13th, but some people don’t know what the superstition is about though. In the article “FRIDAY THE 13TH” it talks about how scared people are about the date. Some people won’t even go outside their home. The number thirteen continues to have an unlucky association today. Thirteen is so disliked that many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue, many high-rise buildings avoid having a 13th floor, some hospitals avoid labeling rooms with the number 13 and many airports will not have a gate 13! The origin of fears surrounding Friday the 13th is unclear. There is reportedly no written evidence of Friday the 13th superstition before the 19th century, but superstitions surrounding the number 13 date back to at least 1700 BC.

Symbolism tells us different things about the number. It says that the number brings the test, the suffering and the death. It symbolizes the death to the matter or to oneself and the birth to the spirit. The number brings bad luck and misfortune. There is many different things the unlucky number symbolizes. Mostly scary, superstitious beliefs that cannot be proven.


Works cited
“Image of elevator.” Photograph. Bury. Bury, 13 July 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2015

“Why is 13 an Unlucky Number?” Video. Stuff You’ve Probably Wondered. YouTube, 20 August 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

"Ead Ml Yode'a." The New Encyclopedia of Judaism. Eds. Geoffrey Wigoder, Fred Skolnik, and Shmuel Himelstein. New York: New York University Press, 2002. Credo Reference. Web. 13 Oct 2015.

Moore, Steve. "Friday the 13th." Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. Ed. Una McGovern. London: Chambers Harrap, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 13 Oct 2015

Conradt Stacy. “13 Reasons People Think the Number 13 is Unlucky” 3 January, 2013; n. pag. Web. 7 October 2015.


Further researchhttp://www.ibtimes.com/friday-13th-history-origins-myths-superstitions-unlucky-day-395108
Greenberg, Julia. ”Friday the 13th: History, Origins, Myths and Superstitions of the Unlucky Day”International Business Times. 13 January 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
This article is about the superstitions of Friday the 13th.

http://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/numerology
"Numerology." The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide. Abington: Helicon, 2015. Credo Reference. Web. 13 Oct 2015.
This article is about how numbers connect to the world of humans, compared to the structure of
the universe.