Do westerners really hate 13?

It is generally believed that 13 is a very annoying number in the west. The reason is that in The Last Supper, Judas, a traitor 13 disciple, betrayed his mentor Jesus and was spurned by everyone. In addition, there is the fairy 13 in Nordic mythology-the evil god Loki (yes, he is the friend of Brother Hammer in the movie Thor), which is also unpopular. There is also "Friday, 13" series, which has been filmed continuously for 30 years and is one of the longest-lived horror film series. Jason, the number one killer, is a nightmare that haunts the hearts of two generations. Therefore, a deep-rooted concept has been formed in our minds: Westerners are extremely annoying 13.

Actually, this view is not accurate. At present, Americans who lead the trend of western entertainment culture are quite fascinated by the number 13. We can take out a Zhang Yiyuan bill and have a look. Regardless of the paintings of the Sun Yat-sen in Washington for the time being, we can see the image on the back: the left half is a pyramid with 13 floors, and there are two words (which can be translated as "God helped our cause") and *** 13 letters on the top of the tower. The eagle on the right holds 13 sharp arrows with one paw and an olive branch with 13 leaves and 13 fruits in the other hand. The stripes on the eagle shield, the stars overhead and the letters on the ribbon (meaning "e pluribus unum") are all 13. Now there is even a new explanation that the 13 pyramid represents the 13 main periods in the Mayan calendar and is related to 20 12.

The reason is not that Americans don't believe in evil at all (Black Friday movies are all made by Americans), but that the United States first started from the colony of 13, and the Qing emperor 13 set out to fight. So it is not accurate to say that westerners hate 13. At least Americans will proudly mention this number.

In Europe, the people who hate thirteen the most are the British and the Dutch. They don't even have to recite the house number of 13. For other European countries, the appearance of 13 in divination means good luck. In their mythology, there are 13 Tian Quan and 13 Tianmen, and people who believe in God hope to get 13 kinds of miraculous medicines. In addition, Israel, as the source of Christianity, doesn't hate thirteen at any time, because Israel was once divided into thirteen tribes, and the savior came on 13. Therefore, it can only be said that westerners only hate 13 in some cases. Apart from people from two serious countries, Britain and the Netherlands, other international friends are tolerant of this.

In modern times, with the increase of international communication, the lethality of 13 is getting weaker and weaker. Look at the popularity of the stars wearing 13 jerseys-Billy Riddle (UK), Nesta (Italy), Neskens (Netherlands) and Ballack (Germany).

In the East, 13 has always been a very auspicious number. In Buddhism, 13 is considered as an auspicious symbol, so many pagodas are 13 floors. I ching also thinks that 13 is a good number. Numbers themselves do not bring much luck, but the bad luck of 13 is only a rumor that people subjectively think. Although many unfortunate events in history occurred on Friday 13 (such as 1869 American financial market crash, 1937 Shanghai "813 incident" and 1978 Iranian protester massacre), this is only a random sampling problem. After statistics, we can find that the probability of bad things happening on other days is basically the same.

(Author: Zhu Guangsi)