why is the number 13 unlucky ?

Answer 1

Because we believe it. if we don't...It is not.

Answer 2

The number 13 is considered unlucky for many reasons. In the following paragraphs I will give some examples of why people think that the number 13 is scary, or unlucky.

The fear of the number 13 often goes to the fear of Friday the 13th. Most religious people who fear the number thirteen have their reasons. There were 13 people at the Lord’s Last Supper before he was crucified. Also he was crucified on a Friday. So the number is considered unlucky and ominous.


Another example, the Apollo 13 mission, which was aborted on its flight to the moon in 1970 because of a fuel cell in the service module. The flight left the launch pad at 13 minutes past the hour on April 13th.

Although there is no solid proof that the fear of the number is unlucky, and that it is just a superstition, many people believe that the number 13 plays a very important role in the lives of many people. People say that the number 13 is very powerful.

Answer 3

Currently 13 is considered to be an unlucky number. However, I am told it used to be--and in some earth-worshipping, i.e., , religions still is--a lucky and magical number. Consequently there were 13 months and 13 zodiac signs (the Gemini twins had separate identities). Knowing how Christianity and other god-as-a-man-based religions were prone to say that what the s (Earth-and-god-as-a-woman) considered good was bad. So really the number 13 is lucky, but in some places its unlucky for some odd reason, so 13 is not unlucky at all!

Answer 4

The solar calendar is 12 is hardly a "male dominated" calendar, even if we were to assume that all sun deities are male, or all moon deities are female (Amatarasu the Japanese sun goddess, or Teccuciztecatl, the Aztec moon god, for example). The reason why there are 12 months in the European solar calendar is because the months roughly follow the cycle of the moon. If the inventors of the "male dominated" solar calendar didn't care about the feminine moon, they would have based their months on something else.

To address the actual question, however, 13 is only unlucky in certain cultures. Each culture has their own ideas on what numbers are lucky or unlucky, based on things attributed to that number. Apparently, it wasn't even considered unlucky in Christianity at first. Try this link:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_080.html

For a little less sarcastic reading, I suggest this link, it's part of a larger article about why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky, but this part focuses on the number 13, so it might lend some insight to your question.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/historical/a/friday_the_13th_2.htm

A good example of cultures that saw the number 13 as a good thing would be the Aztec and Maya, but Shepen already gave a good explanation as to why that is.

Answer 5

The reason that the number 13 is unlucky (as well as Friday the 13th) is because there were 12 Apostles and Jesus was the 13th. He was crucified on Friday - ergo the unlucky day became known as Friday the 13th.

Answer 6

The number 13 is considered unlucky on account of superstition.

Answer 7

Old wives tales! The number 13 is considered unlucky because that's the lucky number for practitioners of Witchcraft. Also, that's why black cats are considered unlucky, because they're connected to Witchcraft.

All ploys to make Witchcraft look bad.

Answer 8

Something to do with Friday 13th- (the reason for which was the date set for the mass arrests of the Knights Templar and so it has stuck as an unlucky date- not really that unlucky if you were a Templar, the majority of them escaped)

Answer 9

It depends on the culture you grew up in. In cultures influenced by Christianity, it is unlucky because that was the number of men at the Last Supper.

However, in ancient Mesoamerica, the Aztecs and Mayans considered it sacred, and the number was very lucky in their calendars. For example, every trecana, or week, had 13 days, and the calendar cycle repeats itself every 52 years, or 4 x 13.

Answer 10

It is only unlucky to Christians. For us witches it is not, there are 13 (traditionaly) witches in a coven, 13 full moons a year and when the 1 and 3 are added in numerology you get 4, the number of elements earth, air, fire and water. All needed for life.

Answer 11

Oct. 13th A friday
It was on Friday, Oct. 13, 1307, that France's King Philip IV had the Knights Templar rounded up for torture and execution. The Knights Templar were an order of warriors within the Roman Catholic Church who banded together to protect Christian travellers visiting Jerusalem in the centuries after the Crusades. The Knights eventually became a rich, powerful ‹ and allegedly corrupt order within the church and were executed for heresy.



So, who knows?



The date may be forever cursed by one event that occurred nearly 700 years ago, or by a series of cosmic coincidences.



Or it may be a figment of human beings' collective imaginations.