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 talk a
moment about Apollo 13. Everything was going just hunky-dory until approximately
1300 hours on April 13th. OOPS! ''Houston, we have a problem." Luckily,
life worked out for the crew, and they returned safely to Earth on April 14th.
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 away food, 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. Girls
are now being included. 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.
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