Why is the number 13 unlucky
Thirteen is the most nefarious number known to human societies. However, there is more history to it than mathematics. So detestable has the number 13 been to humans from times immemorial that the Turks found it reasonable enough to absolutely annihilate its existence from their vocal rules, the architects of most eras preferred excluding it from the nomenclature of houses and streets, and builders chose the numerical confusions over the risks of the number by naming the floors above the twelfth one from fourteen rather than thirteen.
One can only wonder as to whether the notoriety of the number led to the mythological propositions that if thirteen men sat for dinner, one of them would die within an year, or did such a thing actually happen, thus resulting in the defamation of the number! Then, there are stories of there being thirteen witches in a coven. People also try to read into the strange coincidence that Jack The Ripper (Britain’s most evil and hated criminal) had thirteen alphabets his name. However, the hatred and fear associated with ’13’ are believed to be as old as the concept of counting itself.
The ancient people used their fingers and feet to count. Thus, they could only imagine the numbers till two more than ten. This created the distrust and fear for what lay beyond that count, thus leading to the denigration of the number thirteen. However, there are strong counter arguments as well. Why didn’t the primitive men disregard twenty one in the same way, considering that they could have counted ten twice by their fingers and toes of the feet? And then, why slander a numeral without even knowing its existence? But the fact is that there is no dearth of theories that try to explain the discredited history of number 13. There is the fantastical belief that thirteen witches gathered on the Black Sabbath, thus painting 13 with a devilish shade. The Bible’s sayings do no good to the cause of this number either. It states that there were thirteen attendees at the Last Supper.