Observations about superstitions and the number 13

I got the idea for this blog post from it being the 13th one. The number 13 is considered unlucky in many cultures, both Eastern and Western. Oftentimes, hotels don’t even have 13th floors because people never want to stay in that floor and it’s bad for business. It just goes from 12 to 14. This is one of the hundred thousands or perhaps even millions of superstitions there are. There are some universal superstitions like how seeing a black cat is bad fortune. Growing up Turkish, I was surrounded by many many superstitions. And Turkish people, especially people from older generations, don’t usually acknowledge that superstitions have no scientific evidence to back it up. They consider these as sets of rules rather than superstitions. For example, you can’t cut your nails at night. If you’re handing someone scissors or a knife or any sharp object, you have to put it on a flat surface, and you can not hand it directly to the person. Superstitions are more common in Eastern, collectivistic cultures.

So what does collectivistic mean? Well, according to Gerard Hoftsede, a social psychologist who surveyed hundreds of thousands of people based on their cultures and preferences, there are 6 “cultural dimensions”. You can learn about the six of them through here. I will only be talking about individualistic vs. collectivistic cultures since that relates more to superstitions. Individualistic cultures put more importance on “I”, whereas collectivistic cultures put more importance on “we”. This is the most primary difference between these two cultural dimensions, but it extends so far as to be able to say that collectivistic cultures are farmers and individualistic cultures are fishers. So, it can be said that individualistic cultures believe less in superstitions whereas collectivistic cultures like Turkey, or most Eastern/middle-Eastern cultures put importance on superstitions.

This was a general overview of superstitions. I want to specifically talk about the number “13” and the superstitions surrounding it since I find it quite fascinating. While most superstitions are constructed by Eastern cultures, this one is primarily constructed by Western cultures; which intriguied me. So why is 13 unlucky, why do some people even fear it?

In most Eastern cultures, 13 isn’t actually considered an unlucky number. It’s either not recognized as a unique number, and in fact, the number 12 is even considered a “perfect” number. Ancient cultures used to base their number system on the number 12; there are 12 months in a year; a day consists of 2 12 hours; there are 12 gods in most cultures and such. And the last reasons is one of the reaosns why 13 is considered an unlucky number. In the Norse culture, Loki is considered to be the 13th god and upset the perfect balance of the 12 gods; he was also an “evil” god, which is one of the reasons why 13 began to be considered as an unfortunate number in Nordic cultures. 13 began to be considered unlucky in Western cultures once again because of its religious implications. In the “Last Supper”, Judas is the last one (the 13th) to arrive, and he is the one that ends up betraying Jesus. This is one of the reasons as to why 13 became unlucky in Western, Christian cultures. In tarot, 13 also symbolizes death (which can also be interpreted as a new beginning, though it wasn’t) which is one of the reasons as to why 13 was interpreted as unfortunate in spirituality.

So, I hope this blog post was able to provide you with information as to why “13” was considered unlucky, which was something I always asked myself. So I hope I was able to uncover one of the secrets of the universe for you. Aditionally, I hope the explanations in this movie allowed you to shift your perception, and let you see how no one culture can be confined to be superstitious or non-superstitious, just as people can’t be confined to a singular characteristics. Both cultures and people are always ebbing and flowing, changing. And finally, I hope you were anle to recognize the strangeness of the fact that regardless of it having no scientific backup, most buildings don’t have a 13th floor or a 13th apartment; meaning fear of 13 is widely acknowledged. So this goes on to show that sometimes, things that would normally be dismissed and even insulted by the rest of society is believed in or respected, just because over a certain number of people believe in it. This can show to you that you should never step down from your beliefs, regardless of however unscientific or unconventional they may be; because what is being dismissed now could be understood and even respected later. If you believe in something and you want to keep believing in it, please do.