Today is Friday the 13th, ooooooooooh spooky. Any Friday that falls on the 13th of a month is considered very unlucky in Western culture. It’s one of those many superstitions like black cats, stepping on a crack, or walking under a ladder that everyone knows about, but few know the origins of. The source of the original superstition lies in Christianity and the death of Jesus Christ. At the Last Supper, Christ and the 12 Apostles – including Judas – had dinner, and then the next day, which happened to be a Friday, Jesus was crucified. Since then many events have only compounded this fear.
On “Friday the 13th” of October, 1307 Philip IV of France had the Knights Templar arrested and the order soon fell. A very popular Christian organization and arguably the first international bankers, this solidified triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13) and further linked it with Friday.
Another story that is told is that Hammurabi’s famous law code (in 1790-50 BC) did not have a 13th law, skipping straight from the 12th law (Witnesses must appear within six months or be found guilty/pay a fine) to the 14th (kidnapping a son = death). If this great and ancient society avoided the number 13 why shouldn’t we?
Perhaps something that has motivated this fear is that the number 12 is commonly seen as the perfect number in Western society. There are 12 apostles (or 12 apostles + Jesus – Judas), 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 months. For no other number do we have a shorthand like a “dozen” in English. Mayhaps back in the good old days of fire and brimstone the guys were like “This whole 13 thing, just not quite as good as 12 is it?” And since then we’ve been repelled by it.
Now you may have noticed that I’ve been mentioning “western society” a lot in this article. That is because 13 being unlucky is a distinctly Western/European thing. You won’t find buildings that lack a 13th story in Beijing for example. However, in China, and consequently most of Asia, the unlucky number is four. Four in Chinese is pronounced si, and death in Chinese is si, their only spoken difference is a slight accentuation of the “i.”.
To be completely honest, that seems a lot more reasonable than a bunch of coincidences and a religious fellow having dinner with 11 friends and a backstabber.
So I wish everyone reading this on the day of publishing a wonderful and lucky Friday the 13th. Remember, we make our own luck, just think good thoughts, be happy, and look on the bright side of things and it’ll be a great day. I, myself, will be spending all day avoiding cracks, ladders, cats (all kinds, just to be safe) and sitting at a table with 12 others because although I don’t believe in luck, I can’t help but feel that a sophomore MechE can’t go without it.
