Friday the 13th

 

There was a norse myth about 13 too, - 12 gods having a little soiree in Valhalla, when in comes Loki, whom they had omitted to invite - this god number 13 caused a great deal of mischief (which is why he probably didn't get invited in the first place!) - tricking the blind god of darkness to shoot the god of joy and gladness with a mistletoe tipped arrow!! The earth was plunged into darkness and despair and was another instance of 13 being framed the bad guy…..I think the Ancient Egyptians saw it as a good number, it was the number after death, the after life, but even then its importance eroded and became associated just with death, rather than the glorious afterlife

Do you personally have a superstition,?

 

I know of many myths that explain the significance of the number 13 throughout history, and our current abhorence of the innocent number 13 - why do we attribute powers to numbers? Partly to entertain ourselves and partly to hand down stories and tales from long ago.
For the ease of research in this moment I'm going to quote from them,  anyway,- I know of many ancient cultures and myths that have lucky associations with the number 13, and since Judas was the betrayer, probably the number 13 at the Last Supper is the reason most of us in the West have heard that the number is unlucky.
The human fascination with numbers began, doubtless, in the trees as we contemplated our fingers and holding a handful of berries and has continued to this day.
People who have a gift for mathematics and a yen for magic have developed complex systems - esoteric so that only the elect could hold these secrets - divination and other arts have employed this interest in numbers - symbols - throughout the ages.
Here are some interesting links with the otherwise neutral, innocent and meaningless number 13:

From Wikiedia:
“The number of dimensions in some theories of relativity

There are 13 zodiac constellations, which consist of the 12 signs in the astrological zodiac and Ophiuchus.

In religion The number of participants at the Last Supper Counting both Judas and Matthias, there were thirteen apostles Thirteen was once associated with the Epiphany by Christians, the child Jesus having received the Magi on his thirteenth day of life. In Judaism, 13 signifies the age of maturity (bar mitzvah) for boys The number of principles of Jewish faith according to Maimonides According to the Torah, God has 13 Attributes of Mercy In modern day Wicca, thirteen is considered the maximum size of a coven, and in some traditions is the ideal number of members, and there are also 13 goals of a witch.[1] In Sikhism, the number thirteen (13) is a number devoted to the remembrance of God, therefore it is also considered lucky by people who practice the Sikh faith.

[edit] A Significant Number

For various reasons 13 is considered a number carrying a special significance in many cultures.

According to another interpretation, the number 13 is unlucky because it is the number of full moons in a year. Actually two full moons in a single calendar month (referred to as a Blue Moon) only happens about every 2.5 years, so to say there are 13 full moons in a year is false. On average, there will be 41 months that have two full moons in a century, so a Blue Moon actually occurs about once every two-and-a-half years, and is in no way related to the number 13.[2] Women living in a natural environment tend to have their menses during a full moon.[citation needed] A twenty-eight day menstruation cycle is most typical, so a woman usually has 13 menses in a year. Supposedly, in the past, a woman who menstruated during a full moon might be thought a witch.

Early nursery rhymes stated there were thirteen months in a year because of the natural moon cycle that was used to count the lunar year. In England, a calendar of thirteen months of 28 days each, plus one extra day, known as “a year and a day” was still in use up to Tudor times. The lunar year was the easiest to count for cultures before scientific methods existed to observe the movement of the earth around the sun, so it was associated with worship of the pagan Great Goddess[citation needed] for thousands of years, which may be another reason for 13 becoming a taboo number. Taboo often is misunderstood when only half of the totem and taboo relationship is recognized. Among religions having totem and taboo characteristics, that which is taboo on a regular basis, may become quite sacred on special occasions.

In Sikhism, the number 13 is considered a special number since 13 is tera in Punjabi, which also means “yours” (as in, “I am yours, O Lord”). The legend goes that when Guru Nanak Dev was taking stock of items as part of his employment with a village merchant, he counted from 1 to 13 (in Punjabi) as one does normally; and thereafter he would just repeat “tera”, since all items were God's creation. The merchant confronted Guru Nanak about this, but found everything to be in order after the inventory was checked.

In Judaism, 13 is considered a lucky number. One explanation for this is that the word אחד echad, Hebrew for 'one' and thus a way of describing the unique God, has the numerological value of 13 according to the Gematria system.

The number of circles, or “nodes”, that make up Metatron's Cube. The number of Norse gods (there were 12) at a banquet that was crashed by the evil spirit Loki (making 13) who killed one of the guests with a poison arrow. The number of steps, according to Egyptian lore, between life and death.

United States of America The number of original colonies the United States was founded from. The original flag had thirteen stars, one for each state. New stars have since been added whenever a new state joins the union, but the idea of adding stripes for new states was soon dropped, so the American flag to this day has thirteen horizontal stripes: six white ones and seven red ones. The Great Seal of the United States has: 13 levels of the truncated pyramid, 13 letters in “E Pluribus Unum”, which appears in the banner running through the eagle's beak on the right side of the bill's reverse. 13 letters in the phrase “Annuit Coeptis”, which appears over the pyramid on the left side of the bill's reverse. 13 stars above the Eagle, 13 leaves on the olive branch, 13 olives on the olive branch, 13 arrows held by the Eagle, and 13 bars on the shield. The number of guns in a gun salute to U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps Major Generals, and Navy and Coast Guard Rear Admirals Upper Half. The Naval Jack of the United States has 13 stripes, 7 red and 6 white, the rattlesnake has 13 buttons on its rattle, and the motto “Don't Tread on Me” has 13 letters

In other fields Someone who reaches age 13, is officially a teenager and remains there until 20. The original number of members of The Thirteen Club. The number of loaves in a ”baker's dozen” The expression, “A year and a day” refers to 13 28-day lunar months plus 1 day The number of Popes named Innocent, for which an honor society containing 13 members at the University of Nebraska is named (“The Society of Innocents”) The number of cards in a single suit of a standard deck of playing cards The ASCII and Unicode value for carriage return “Unlucky for some”, according to bingo callers The number of players in a rugby league team The number of Plutonium slugs in Fat Man, the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki The number 13 on a Hells Angel's, Ton-Up or other biker patch or tattoo refers to the thirteenth letter of the alphabet, M, which signified a marijuana smoker. 13, or “X3”, is the number of the Mexican street gang Sureños. It refers to the thirteenth letter of the alphabet, M, for Mexico In rugby union one of the centres, most often but not always the outside centre, wears the 13 shirt Israel Naval covert unit - Shayetet 13 Former professional wrestler Tazz used the number 13 in his ring gear, merchandise, and Titantron video, signifying the 13 years he wrestled in the independent circuit and ECW before being signed by WWE A card game very similar to Tien len. The ancient card game 'Boumpha' has 13 different cards In tarot, card no. 13 is “Death” Though some football (soccer) clubs omit the number 13 shirt, it is the current shirt number of the following notable players: Michael Ballack of Chelsea (previously William Gallas Cristian Chivu of A.S. Roma Aliaksandr Hleb of Arsenal Alessandro Nesta of AC Milan Ji-Sung Park of Manchester United There are traditionally thirteen steps leading up to a gallows. It is, however, an urban myth that there are thirteen turns in a hangman's noose (there are most commonly eight turns.) There are thirteen letters in macabre-fiction writer Edgar Allan Poe's name. Colgate University, in New York State, has a certain liking for the number thirteen. The University was founded in 1819 by thirteen men, with thirteen dollars and thirteen prayers. Colgate is located in Hamilton, whose zip code, 13346, has both the number “13” in it, as well as its last three numbers adding up to thirteen. The jersey number of notable athletes Bill Guerin, Slava Kozlov and Anthony Calvillo. Rondeau is a poem with 13 lines. ”

 

Patty Cake, Patty Cake, My Baker Pal
Baked Me A Tasty Cake
So I Made Her My Gal
Now, We Got 12 Kids In The Kitchen
Cookin' Up Some Lovin'
Gotta Go! There's The Timer!
Number 13's In The Oven!

Signed,
King Arthur Jo