13: The Story of the World's Most Notorious Superstition

by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

Triskaidekaphobia: fear of the number 13

If thirteen people sit down at a table, will one die within a year? Why did five U.S. presidents join the Thirteen Club? What is the only major New York hotel that has a thirteenth floor?

In 13, a fascinating cultural history-cum-detective story, Nathaniel Lachenmeyer gets to the root of how one superstition—the fear of the number 13—developed among wildly divergent societies. A book about mythmaking, 13 explores why people believe what they believe, and the real reason Friday the 13th is the most unlucky day in the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Reference, Psychology

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Where did the superstition began? The answer, if there is one, lies so far back in time that no one knows. Early Christians blamed the Last Supper, at which Judas was the 13th guest. But long before then, Norse mythology was telling of a banquet for a dozen gods that was crashed by the evil spirit Loki, who killed one of the guests . . . " -- excerpt from a June 1977 New York Times article

In English-speaking countries and/or a good portion of the Western Hemisphere the notion that the number 13 is plain unlucky in any context is a fairly pervasive one. (Examples include Friday the 13th being a bad luck day; airlines not having row 13 seating and/or flights numbered 13; skyscrapers completely bypassing numbering floors as 13; and that if 13 people are seated at a table one of them will die within a year.) With 13 author Lachenmeyer explores some possible origins of this mystical belief, and lightly details how it became much more commonplace in America during the 19th and 20th century. I'm not sure what to think about the negative connotations with said number (as the character Michael Scott famously surmised in TV's The Office - "I'm not superstitious . . . but I am a little stitious"), but this compact modern folklore book, although a bit repetitious and a little dry in tone, was still an adequate way to kill some time with its unconventional subject matter.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m very fond of wee books that take a quirky little theme and run with it – and this one was obviously going to be one of those. At first I thought that there wouldn’t be quite enough of a theme to this one to be running anywhere. I mean, how often can you say that 13 is an unlucky number? This isn’t a very long book, but if that was going to be the only fact in it then it could well be an endlessly tiresome book. (Endless in the sense that I would never get around to finishing it)

But this was a surprisingly engaging little book. The story in a nutshell is that the writer bought a scrapbook somewhere that was put together by someone with a pair of scissors and a pot of glue and some interesting articles from the daily papers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One day the writer is flicking through this scrapbook and he comes across a series of articles on the Thirteen Club – a club of people who get together on the thirteenth of the month and sit, thirteen to a table, leave their cutlery crossed, spill salt and break mirrors. (If my mother is reading this she will be feeling decidedly queasy right about now)

Naturally, he had never heard of this club before and suspected that it was some little fly-by-night idea that never quite got off the ground – but a little research later and he found that in fact over the years it even counted five US Presidents as members.

So off he goes trying to find out just what started this 13 superstition – and what he finds is fascinating. Firstly, this isn’t a superstition that has anything like the long history you might think it has. Today we have probably all heard the New Age and New Pagan witches who talk of the thirteen moonths like that woman in “He Died with a Felafel in His Hand”. The myth about thirteen today is that the Church made it an unlucky number to overcome the power of pagan moon worship (or perhaps the Knights Templar) who recognised 13 as a number of wonderous significance linked to the menstrual cycle. Ironically, the Church had long seen 13 as a positive number – Christ and his twelve disciples making 13 after all. It is also odd that this is a superstition that should have such currency in the United States, particularly given the numerous and very positive associations US history has around the number.

It seems that 13 only became unlucky about 200 years ago, but quickly became everyone’s favourite superstition. Then it was mostly around having 13 people sit down to dinner – the superstition which I’ve been brought up with all my life (but never have been told what was the outcome of the superstition) is the belief that if you do sit down to eat with twelve others that one of those at the table will be dead within a year. Clearly this is based on the last supper (even though in that case two of them were dead within a day). Oddly, apparently in Italy 13 is a lucky number for much the same reason.

It took a while for the number itself to become associated with bad luck and even longer (not until the start of the twentieth century) for Friday the Thirteenth to become something to worry about. I would have honestly thought these things went back hundreds of years, but apparently not.

Along the way we are told about buildings without thirteenth floors (the block of flats I live in does not have a thirteenth flat) and planes without thirteenth aisles. Then also stuff on Friday 13th which is Tuesday 13th in Spain (an idea that makes much more sense to me – how anyone could consider any Friday to be unlucky is quite beyond me) and how the film Friday 13th has started a shift in Spain away from Tuesday being unlucky and towards Friday.

Nathaniel sees the power of thirteen diminishing over time – or even reversing again back to being beneficent as it had been for most of the last couple of thousand years – but mostly due to a misunderstanding of the new pagans. I found all this amusing and very interesting. I enjoyed this little book very much.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful short survey of the origins and underpinnings of people's superstitions about the number 13. There's all kinds of wonderful folklore in here.

[Michelle]

This one will really turn you on your ear about your assumptions about the number 13. I love when research and evidence trump superstitions and hearsay... so it goes that I loved this little book. Seek it out & enjoy a well-written eye-opener. (I finished this book on the 13th!!!)

[Bindi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read. Really opened my eyes to why 13 had been seen as an unlucky number and changed my mind about how I feel about it.

[Addy Baird · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun research read

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a superstitious person or really a believer in any luck but, I wanted to read "13" to understand why so many people fear the number. This book is interesting and surprisingly full with historical facts about what people believe about the number. It is well written and it breaks down all the societies surrounding the number 13 into themes. One thing I found interesting was that they're people who actually worship the number for positive reasons. Also, the way the author broke down the number and the origins is a great guide for me if I ever wanted to touch a subject similar to this. Author Lachenmeyer does a good job at exploring these superstitions and if you are into superstitions I would advise you to read this book.

[Alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you write a book called "13", you will start seeing the number everywhere. This book was in the window of a used bookstore, so I had to buy it.

I did learn a lot of fascinating things about the number 13 and the 13 superstitition. The superstition started because there were 13 people at the Last Supper. This spawned the popularity of Thirteen Clubs, where people would gather to risk invoking popular superstitions. These dangers would feature black cats, coffins, spilled salt etc. They were a big deal!

There were some pretty interesting things in this book, but other sections were pretty boring. This isn't necessarily a book that I would recommend to a lot of people.

Still, there was some cool trivia, and quotes about the number 13.

[Heather Colacurcio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting read about the history of the world's collective obsession and phobia with the number 13. I was actually able to share a couple of these facts with my classmates in a college course years after I'd read it. If your looking for a little bit of an off-beat non-fiction book, this is worth a read.

[J.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book that looks at the history of why we think of the number 13 as bad luck or superstitious. I learned a lot by reading this ~ of particular interest to me were the "Thirteen Clubs" back during the turn of the century who did their best to debunk the number's myth.

This would benefit anyone interested in the paranormal or unusual. Check it out!

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew that the number 13 had such a background? I am different from most people, in that I view this number to be one of my luckier ones. However, there are several people that have a phobia about the number 13, and this book goes into detail about that as well as other fun facts about the odd number.

[waits4thebus · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was certainly a borefest at times, but interesting connections to famous people throughout history who were obsessed with the number. The title was misleading, because I don't think there really was a "story" per se, more like a random semi-organized set of facts and some interesting blurbs about a particular number that some have found ominous.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short book, yet it took me forever to read. It was interesting, and yet, I think the author dragged out and repeated too much some of the superstition to get more pages into the book. Overall, a good read, and I learned a few things about the number 13. Had it not been for the Dewey Project, I probably wouldn't have picked this up. I'm glad I chose it.

[Amber Fagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to see how this whole 13 thing got out of control. People will literally believe anything. Sad.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

It may seem like a strange thing to write a book about - but this was one of my favorite reads last year. It's a fascinating little social history about religion, superstition, and popular culture.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool book-especially since I was born on the 13th! Never knew the background of why it became such a superstitious number til I read this book.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book was surprisingly boring.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the book was really interesting, but there was a lot of repetition and unnecessary things.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you looking for the "true" origins of the superstition of the #13 and even Friday the 13th, here is your book. A little dry, yet interesting.

[Jessica Gee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, because I like little histories of very specific things. But I just found this one boring.

[Midnight Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of interesting facts backed up by painstaking research and a very fast and easy read.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book. I'm not superstitious but it was fun to learn how this one superstition started and all of its different forms. A good choice for the "130" section of Dewey!

[Jen Willson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ive always been interested in Friday the 13th and thus book taught me a lot of history I didn't know about it. great read