Fear of the Number Thirteen

"Thirteen: Are You Afraid?"

The number thirteen has long been regarded as an unlucky number by many cultures. This may stem from the fact that it is one more than twelve, which is a popular number in many cultures; which may be due to the fact that twelve is easily divided into even groups. When a group of thirteen people is divided into even groups of two, four, or six, one person will be the leftover, or unlucky, one.

Fear of the number thirteen with no reasoning behind it is called triskaidekaphobia. Though many people, including myself, believe this to be a superstition, many tall buildings will skip the thirteenth floor. They will either name it 14 or something like 12a. But then this question arises: Isn’t the fourteenth floor, in such a case, really the thirteenth? Perhaps people should then be afraid to stay on this floor even if it has been renamed. I think this is proof that the whole fear of the number thirteen is in the mind. If a person is afraid of thirteen and is on the thirteenth floor, they will attribute anything bad that happens to the unlucky factor of the number thirteen. But if they convince themselves that the floor is the fourteenth, even if it really isn’t, their ‘bad luck’ will magically disappear. What utter rubbish.

The thirteenth of a month is also ominous to some people, particularly if it falls on a Friday. The fear of Friday the thirteenth is, in my opinion, entirely unreasonable, but is considered to be a day of bad luck in English, Portuguese and German-speaking cultures. Fear of Friday the thirteenth is called paraskavedekatriaphobia. I believe this word fits the fear quite excellently, since both are quite ridiculous.

And in my personal experience, Friday the thirteenth is a good day. It is the day when, after a long and tiring search, I finally found a really competent beta for my fanfic, whom I am still using now.

Many people in sports avoid wearing the number thirteen. But this logic can be reversed! Perhaps people who wear thirteen will make their opponents unlucky. This is proved by the legendary NBA superstar Wilt Chamberlain, who wore the number thirteen on his jersey throughout his career.

Of course, quite a few movies and songs have taken advantage of the supposedly unlucky factor of the number thirteen. In Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, references to the number thirteen are scattered throughout all the books. The last book in the series is also the thirteenth one, and was in fact released on Friday the thirteenth. But this series has won many awards to date.

Thirteen is also a happy number for most preteens, who once they reach the age of thirteen can revel in the fact that they are no longer children, but complete teenagers. I have personal experience of this as well. Since my sister turned thirteen, a few months ago, she hasn’t stopped rubbing in the fact that I am no longer the only teenager in the house.

In conclusion, I would like to say that while I think fear of the number thirteen is a foolish fear, there are some even more unreasonable fears out there. So if you suffer from triskaidekaphobia, you have my full sympathy. And you can give me that thirteenth chocolate-chip cookie.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_%28number%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th