It’s not just customs and customs that differ from country to country, numbers don’t have the same value across the board either. Despite all scientific knowledge, a numerical superstition has often developed over centuries as an integral part of many cultures.
The meaning assigned to individual numbers originates from very different sources such as religion, linguistic phenomena and legends. Without Jesus and Judas, for example, the number 13 would not have this catastrophic image. So it would not be the reason why one looks in vain for this number among floors, room numbers and rows of seats in many western states; This is also the case, for example, with the Lufthansa aircraft that fly within Europe.
According to the New Testament, Judas was the 13th guest at the Last Supper. He betrayed Christ – with fatal consequences. He was then crucified on Good Friday. So if the 13th also falls on a Friday, this is particularly risky.
13 is also considered an ominous number in South America. But not in combination with Friday, but with Tuesday, which is called “martes” in Spanish. The word can be derived from the Roman god of war, Mars, who represented war and destruction. Therefore, in the Spanish-speaking area of ??Latin America, Tuesday corresponds to our Christian Friday.
In Italy, on the other hand, 13 is one of the lucky numbers. The number 17, however, brings bad luck. The reason for this is the anagram that results from writing the number in the Roman spelling “XVII”. You can change the letters to “VIXI”, which means “I have lived”. In plain language: “I’m dead.” Of course nobody wants to be.
Even worse: if the 17th falls on a Friday in November, the month of mourning. That’s why the former Italian airline Alitalia never had a Series 17 and its successor ITA Airways continues this tradition.
Numbers work particularly well as codes. The number combination 420 is familiar to many stoners and is the reason why many US hotels do not assign this room number. They want to prevent hash parties from taking place in room number 420 or the room number being screwed off the door.
According to legend, in the early 1970s, after high school, the kids used to meet in liberal northern Californian San Rafael at 4:20 p.m. – 4:20 p.m. in American, also spelled 4/20 – to chill. Joints were passed around. The group called themselves the “Waldos” and were part of the hippie culture that spread from nearby San Francisco – and with it the pothead code 420 – around the world.
Not anagrams, but the same sound of syllables in Mandarin means that the number 4 (“si”) sounds like “to die”. That is why the fourth floor is missing in hotels and lifts. But 14 is bad, too, because the word part “death” is still in there. Consequently, there are no Chinese airlines with rows 4 and 14. And room number 514 is taboo because it almost sounds like the phrase “I want to die” in Chinese.
A four-leaf clover is a lucky symbol for us. Not so in Japan and South Korea, where 4 is unlucky for the same reason as in China. The number 9 has completely opposite meanings in the Far East. In Japanese, it’s pronounced to be similar to the syllable “sorrow,” and of course nobody wants that.
In China and Korea, however, the 9 stands for luck. In the Chinese Empire, it symbolized longevity. There are also 9 dragons, each imperial palace had 9 courtyards, and 99 dishes were served to the ruler on New Year’s Day.
