The Superstitions in Numbers around the world
Every different country has its own definition of the meaning for the particular number. Let’s find out the similarities and the differences. The example of Japanese: In Japan, we believe there are certain numbers that are ominous. This idea influenced people in many different ways. For example, numbers such as 4 and 9 are known as unlucky numbers. In Japanese, we pronounce 4 as "shi" and "shi" symbolizes death. We pronounce 9 as "ku" and it symbolizes suffering. Meanings of both numbers are very bad so that when we go to the hospital, we never see these two numbers on floor or room, because these numbers symbolizes death and suffering. There is also another belief, we think that a climacteric age in one's life. For example, age of 25, 42, and 60 is the climacteric age for men and for women, it is 19 and 33. People will tell them to be careful when they turned to that age because we believe that they have more chance of getting bad luck and something bad might happen to them. Not only Japanese are superstitious but Americans are also superstitious. Americans believe that numbers 6 and 13 are ominous because these numbers are known to be evil numbers. For example, in my apartment I do not see these numbers and we do not even have these floors. It is funny that how people are very superstition in these two countries and we based on ideas on numbers. From this we can see importance of numbers and how people are dependant on numbers when they build things and their events. Because we have believed this from a long time ago, it became part of our life. The example of Americans: In the United States, people often consider 13 as an unlucky number. For example, may cities don’t have a 13 street; many buildings don’t have a 13 floor. There are also those who believe that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day- one on which many things can go wrong. You can’t say they are wrong for believing this because there were some strange coincidence about the number 13. For instance, a ship- the HMS Friday- which launched on a Friday the 13 th, disappeared at sea. In 1945, people watched in disbelied on a Friday the 13th when the first atom bomb was tested. On a Friday the 13th in 1992, an earthquake in Turkey killed thousands of people. Although the number 13 is considered unlucky in the USA, the country was originally divided into 13 states. On the dollar bill there is a picture of an incomplete pyramid with 13 steps. Strange, isn’t it? For Taiwanese, 4 is usually considered to be unlucky for the pronunciation sounds like “dead”. Due to this reason, many hotels often don’t have 4 floor, it is also that some supernatural things often happened on that floor. Also, people don’t give gifts in multiples of 4. Another example is in the restaurant. It is common that if we have a group of four people; however, people will say “3+1” instead of 4 in order to avoid the unlucky meaning. I think these kind of superstitions are really fun and interesting. I do believe these superstitions, after all some of it has an ancient origin. It must have some reasonable reason for surviving such a long time, isn’t it?
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