Triskaidekaphobia

Did You Know?

• In Cantonese-speaking areas, the number 13 is considered lucky because it sounds similar to words meaning 'sure to live'.
• Colgate University was started by 13 men with $13 and 13 prayers, making 13 a lucky number there.
• Prior to the First World War, 13 was considered a lucky number in France, even featured on postcards and charms.

Origins

The idea that the number 13 is unlucky has several proposed origins, but no documented proof exists that this belief is ancient. The earliest known references to 13 as unlucky appear only after the Middle Ages in Europe. Tarot card games, recorded from around 1450 onward with the Visconti-Sforza deck, include a trump card representing Death, which is numbered 13 in many versions. In 1781, Antoine Court de Gébelin noted that in the Tarot of Marseilles, the number thirteen was "always considered as unlucky." Three years later, Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf cited Gébelin and confirmed that tarot card number 13 signifies death and misfortune. A superstition about "thirteen at a table" has been documented since at least 1774: if thirteen people dine together, one will die within a year. That same year, Johann August Ephraim Götze speculated that this belief came from the Gospel story where Jesus sat with his twelve disciples at the Easter meal. Starting in the 1890s, English-language sources repeated the idea that Judas, the betrayer, was the thirteenth to sit at the Last Supper. The Bible does not specify seating order, but there were thirteen people present. In 1968, Douglas Hill’s book Magic and Superstition told a Norse myth about twelve gods feasting in Valhalla, where the uninvited trickster Loki showed up as the thirteenth guest and caused Höðr to kill Balder with a mistletoe arrow. This version was later repeated by folklore historian Donald Dossey. However, the original Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson does not highlight twelve gods, a dinner party, or the number 13 in that story.

Events related to "unlucky" 13

On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of the Knights Templar. While the number 13 was already seen as unlucky, Friday the 13th itself was not considered unlucky at that time. The false connection between the arrests and fears of Friday the 13th was invented in the early 2000s and spread by the novel The Da Vinci Code. In 1881, a group of New Yorkers led by Civil War veteran Captain William Fowler formed the Thirteen Club to fight superstition. Their first meeting was on January 13, 1881, at 8:13 p.m., with thirteen people dining in Room 13. They entered by walking under a ladder and sat among piles of spilled salt. Similar clubs appeared across North America for 45 years, counting five future U.S. presidents among their members, but eventually faded. The British submarine HMS K13 sank on January 29, 1917, during trials due to an open hatch and vents. It was raised, renamed K22, and later collided with other K-class submarines on February 1, 1918, killing 103 men. The number L13 was skipped in the next British submarine class. Apollo 13 launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST and suffered an oxygen tank explosion on April 13, aborting its moon mission; all crew returned safely. The Friday the 13th mini-crash was a stock market crash on Friday, October 13, 1989.

Thirteenth floor

The thirteenth floor is a designation of a level in a multi-level building that is often omitted in countries where the number 13 is considered unlucky. Common forms of omission include denoting the thirteenth floor as level 14, giving it an alternative designation such as '12A' or 'M' (the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet), or closing the 13th floor to public occupancy or access by designating it as a mechanical floor. Reasons include triskaidekaphobia on the part of the building's owner or builder, or a desire to prevent problems with superstitious tenants or customers. In 2002, Dilip Rangnekar of Otis Elevators estimated that among buildings with thirteen or more floors and Otis brand elevators, 85% did not have a floor named the 13th floor. Early tall-building designers, fearing a fire on the 13th floor or tenants' superstitions, decided to omit listing a 13th floor on elevator numbering, a practice that became commonplace in American mainstream culture and building design. Vancouver city planners have banned the practice of skipping 4s and 13s, as it could lead to mistakes by first responders. The origin of skipping the thirteenth floor when installing elevators is not known, but during the advent of early skyscrapers, New York architectural critics warned developers not to exceed the height of the 13th floor (130 ft), citing increased street congestion, ominous shadows, and lower property values. In 1939, sociologist Otto Neurath compared the use of money in an economy to the superstition of not installing the thirteenth floor, calling it merely a social convention. Most commonly, 13 is skipped in elevator numbering, so the floor labeled '14' is actually the thirteenth floor. Many ships, including cruise liners, have omitted having a 13th deck due to triskaidekaphobia.

In popular culture

Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that the thirteenth floor in government buildings is not really missing but contains top-secret governmental departments, or that it is proof of something sinister. This implication appears in popular culture in various works. The films The Thirteenth Floor, Nightmare on the 13th Floor, and 1408 feature this theme. The television program Max Headroom includes hidden research and development labs of Network 23. In the fifth book of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, Mostly Harmless, there is a top-secret research and development division. The computer game Floor 13 by Virgin Interactive also explores the concept. In the sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, 'floor 13' referred to a secret brig several decks high. The book Company by Max Barry features a secret thirteenth floor. In Action Comics #448 (June 1975), a secret thirteenth floor was used to teleport alien tourists. The 'Night of Owls' storyline in Batman uses the thirteenth floors of Gotham's buildings as bases for assassins. The level 'The 13th Floor' appears in the computer game Tomb Raider: Chronicles. The psychedelic rock band The 13th Floor Elevators takes its name from the concept. The Rockford Files episode 'Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, But Waterbury Will Bury You' references it. In The X-Files episode 'Ghost In The Machine', the Central Operating System omits the thirteenth floor as the elevator ascends. In the Marvel Comics event Iron Man 2020, a safe haven called the Thirteenth Floor exists as an extra-dimensional plane accessible through any elevator in Manhattan. In the film No Country For Old Men, a character notes that one floor in a building seems to be missing. In the Canadian cartoon series Freaky Stories, an accountant becomes obsessed with finding the 13th floor.