In honor of today being the 13th

In honor of today being the 13th, I thought I'd share some of my writing.

The Truth about Thirteen

Everyone has heard how unlucky the number thirteen is. And, God forbid, should it coincide with a Friday. There scores of movies telling what an awful day that is. But why does thirteen have such a bad reputation?

First, Christians associate thirteen with the number present at the Last Supper. Tradition holds that Judas Iscariot was the last to sit at the table, and he is the pinnacle of evil as the man who betrayed Christ.

In Norse mythology, Odin invited eleven of his friends to a party, which was crashed by Loki, the god of evil and turmoil and mischief. That party probably got lively. Scandinavians believe the number thirteen unlucky due to the twelve mythological demigods being joined by a thirteenth evil one.

Thirteen can never be divided equally to form groups. It’s a prime number. There will always be one unlucky person left over, unloved and unwanted.

Another possibility for poor thirteen’s bad name could be that there are thirteen full moons in a year. A woman typically has thirteen periods in a year, and in the past a woman who menstruated during a full moon was considered a witch. However, a woman living in a natural society tends to have her cycle correspond to moon cycles. Nonetheless, witches’ covens are associated with having the perfect number of members, thirteen.

In a Tarot deck, the number thirteen is reversed and can be interpreted to portend death. Thirteen reversed is thirty-one.

Let's see…The U. S. space flight, Apollo 13 did not exactly have a smooth trip. As a matter of fact, the date that the oxygen tank exploded was April 13. Stanger still, Apollo 13 was launched at 1:13 Central Standard Time. If that is written in military time, it is 13:13. Those facts are a bit creepy. Thank goodness that April 13, 1970, was on a Monday, or it could have added to the Friday the 13th lore.

As said before, thirteen plus Friday spell disaster. But why? Well, during the Middle Ages, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrests of Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, supposed guardians of the Holy Grail and other religious artifacts, and sixty of his senior knights on Friday, October 13, 1307. Most of them were tortured and executed, causing their sympathizers to condemn the date as evil. In the eighteenth century, the ship, the HMS Friday, was launched on Friday the thirteenth and never seen again.

Christians and Europeans tend to view thirteen as unlucky, but that is not true for all civilizations. Some cultures revere the number. Even Christians once saw thirteen in a positive light as it was thought the Magi visited Jesus on the thirteenth day of His life, giving rise to the twelve days of Christmas. The Catholic Church still celebrates Epiphany twelve days after Christmas.

Egyptians are to be thanked for developing the first superstition about thirteen, but for them, it was lucky. They believed there were twelve steps on the ladder to eternal life and knowledge. The thirteenth step meant immortality, going through death to eternal life.

Sikhs believe that the Guru Navek De Ji gave out food for free. When he got to the thirteenth person, he stopped. The Hindi word for thirteen is Terah, which means yours. The Guru Navek kept saying, “Yours, yours,” remembering God. And although he had been giving food away, when the money stores were checked, there was more money than before. Also, the Ik Onkar looks like thirteen and means one God. It is the symbol for the unity of God and a central tenet of Sikh religious philosophy.

In Judaism, thirteen is the age at which a boy matures and celebrates his Bar Mitzvah. Most people can’t wait to become a teenager—thirteen. According to the Torah, the sacred writing of Judaism, God has thirteen attributes of mercy.

In China, the number thirteen is considered lucky. The number one, when placed in the tens place, sounds like shi and means definite in Mandarin. The number three sounds like living or life or birth. Hence, the number thirteen, which is pronounced shisan in Mandarin, means assured growth or definitely vibrant.

Many famous sports figures have pushed their luck and worn number thirteen. In baseball Ozzie Guillen and, though too well thought of right now, Alex Rodriguez have worn it. An NBA great who wore thirteen was Wilt Chamberlain. The International Basketball Federation, better known as FIBA, requires a player to wear thirteen. Some well-known basketball players who have worn thirteen in international competition, such as the Olympics, are Tim Duncan, Chris Mullen, and Shaquille O’Neal. In the NHL, Mats Sundin has tempted fate and worn number thirteen. In the world of soccer, Kristine Lilly and Michael Ballack have been number thirteen. NFL wide receiver for the New York Jets, Don Maynard, wore number thirteen; NFL quarterback, Kurt Warner donned the number thirteen for both the Rams and the Cardinals, and even got a Super Bowl victory with the Rams as number thirteen; but probably the most well-known sports number thirteen was NFL Hall of Famer, quarterback, Dan Marino for the Miami Dolphins. Well, maybe if he had worn twelve, he would have won that Super Bowl ring rather than breaking almost every record there ever was at the time.

Italians consider thirteen lucky, and old-school tattoo cultures regard it as lucky.

Colgate University epitomizes thirteen’s good fortune. The college was founded in 1819—too bad it wasn’t 1813—by thirteen men with thirteen dollars, thirteen prayers, and thirteen articles. As a matter of fact, the campus address is 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, New York.

In addition, the number thirteen must have had the utmost importance to the founding fathers of the United States. There were thirteen original colonies, and there are still thirteen stripes on the flag. The Great Seal of the United States is covered with the number thirteen. Some people say that is because so many of the founding fathers were Free Masons, and there are thirteen levels of Free Masonry. Very few achieve the thirteenth level of Grand Master, so that part could be true. They might have considered thirteen to be achieving the superlative.

Let’s look at the Great Seal to see how important thirteen is to it. Get out an American dollar (if you have one) and let’s look at the Great Seal on the back.

Let’s first examine the right side with the eagle on it. Let’s work from top to bottom. Count the stars above the eagle’s head. There are thirteen. Next, count the letters in E Pluribus Unum. Again, there are thirteen. Examine the shield. If can see well enough to count the horizontal stripes, there are thirteen. There are definitely thirteen vertical stripes. Now, count the leaves on the olive branch and the arrows in each talon. There are thirteen leaves and thirteen arrows.

Now, let’s look at the other side. Annuit Coeptus contains thirteen letters. Last, there are thirteen levels of the pyramid, the thirteenth being the top or the eye. This leads back to the Free Masons as the pyramid and the eye as the superlative being their symbols and the laying of the foundation of the United States. This also takes us back to the Egyptians and the first superstition about thirteen with the highest level being immortality. Where are the Great Pyramids found? Egypt.

I guess everyone has to draw his or her own conclusions about thirteen. There are too many conflicting opinions, but, hey, what cop do you know that would turn down a baker’s dozen, thirteen, of doughnuts and what baker wouldn’t like a baker’s dozen eggs, of course for the price of a regular dozen?

So, is thirteen lucky or unlucky? What is the truth about thirteen and luck?

The truth is: Thirteen is a number. It comes between twelve and fourteen. Your luck is what you make it. Your life is what you make it. So, go out and make it count.