The Superstition of Numbers in America

Written by Sasha


Most of superstitions are related to daily life and people’s habits. Among them, the superstitions of numbers are the most prevailed one because we can find it in almost every country. In this article, we are going to overview the history and development of this wide-believed superstition which is rooted in American’s everyday life.

There’s something interesting that “superstitions” always warn you what’s harmful and unlucky instead of telling you what’s helpful and positive to life. However, that phenomenon is reasonable for making a living is hard in the past so people were trying hard to avoid possible obstacles. Besides, religions, especially the Christ and Catholic are influential in western culture. In America, the number “13” is disliked and said to be unfortunate. The origin can trace the history back to the century before. In the Last Supper, Jesus had dinner with his twelve disciples. However, one of the disciples, Judah betrayed Jesus and led the Judaic governors, who crucified Jesus in the end, to the dinner hall. Judah sat at the thirteenth seat at that time; as a result, western people consider the number“13” as a symbol of unluckiness.

In America, the number of people sits around a table and of dishes could not be thirteen; in many high buildings, there’s not “the thirteenth” floor, even there is, people will call it the “fourteenth” floor instead.

In one of the provinces, there was an interesting accident happened. In a week, five car accidents occurred continuously and it caused citizens’ discontent. As a result, the police officer worked hard to find out the account. Finally they found a panda car which had a license plate with the number 13, and it was considered to be the origin of the recent unfortunatenesses. Consequently, the number od the license plate was replaced with 25.

Nevertheless, the Americans also have lucky numbers and the most significant one is the number “3”. In their opinion, three stands for a traditional family which consists of a father, mother and a child. Therefore, Americans tend to make up the proper number to three or the multiple of three. However, thinking in a negative way, accidents, funerals and bad luck may also appears in three at a time.



Reference:
http://www.3158.cn/news/20100302/10/2842221701_1.shtml
http://www.dreye.com/tw/english/ztip/content/ztip61.htm
http://www.eng24.com/html/2007-9/2007926104013.html