By: Prescious Kyles
My grandma has always been one to believe in superstitions. Whether it’s a black cat walking by to spilling salt, she believes in it. Her weirdest superstition is that eating peanuts in the car is extremely unlucky. Although I find her peanut superstition to be odd, I find people who consider certain numbers unlucky even more odd. I understand that in China, specifically Hong Kong, the number four is considered unlucky because it sounds close to the word "death" in Cantonese. They consider it so unlucky that most Chinese buildings don’t have a fourth floor, and many try to avoid a license plate that ends in four. What I don’t understand is why we consider the number 13 unlucky, especially if it’s the 13th day in a month that just so happens to land on a Friday. Friday the 13th is considered a very iconic day, mostly because of the movie “Friday the 13th," a famous horror movie about a camper named Jason who was tossed into a lake when he was just a boy. Since none of the counselors were looking, he died a very tragic death. He then manages to come back alive as an immortal and scarily strong serial killer who follows his dead mother’s words to kill anyone who sets foot into the camp. It’s a classic horror movie that I highly suggest watching. Surprisingly, the horror movie isn’t the reason why many people consider that certain day unlucky. In fact, there’s not a solid reason where the superstition started; it just appeared one day. The number 13, on the other hand, has been seen as unlucky for centuries. While it’s a bit unclear on why this number is frowned upon, people have a few opinions on why it’s unlucky. One theory goes all the way back to when Jesus was alive. During Jesus’ last few hours alive, he had a famous feast with his disciples called The Last Supper. There were 13 people at the Last Supper, Jesus and his 12 disciples. The 13th person at the table was Judas, the disciple who would go behind Jesus’ back and eventually lead to him being crucified on the cross. Many people who are Christian believe that’s why the number is unlucky. Another theory is that 12 is considered a perfect number. 12 hours in a day, 12 months in a year, 12 inches in a foot. It seems like almost everything revolves around this number. Just add one more to it and you’ll get 13, an odd number that just so happens to come after this perfect number 12. It’s one too many to even be looked at with respect. What makes this superstition even more odd is the fact that only the West has a problem with this number. Italians and ancient Egyptians actually saw the number 13 as a lucky number. It’s associated with a great goddess of fertility and life. Whether or not you believe that this number is unlucky, I’m sure we can all agree that "triskaidekaphobia" is too complicated of a word for this fear. Do you have any superstitions? If you want, feel free to leave them in the comments below!
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