The actual question should be: What does the 13 mean to you?
ChristianityThere were thirteen participants at the
Last Supper. Tradition states that Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table.
Thirteen was once associated with the
Epiphany by Christians, as it is said the child
Jesus received the
Magi on his thirteenth day of life.
There are 13 Apostles in Christianity; the 12 Disciples plus St Paul of Tarsus. In addition to being the 13th Apostle, he is also known as "The Apostle" by the Church Fathers.
SikhismAccording to famous
Sakhi (Evidence) or story of
Guru Nanak Dev Ji, when he was an accountant at a town of
Sultanpur Lodhi, he was distributing grocery to people and when he gave groceries to the 13th person he stopped there because in
Gurmukhi and Hindi the word 13 is called Terah, which means yours. And Guru Nanak kept on saying, "Yours, yours, yours..." remembering God. People reported to the emperor that Guru Nanak was giving out free food to the people. When treasures were checked, there was more money than before.
The
Vaisakhi which commemorates the creation of "
Khalsa" or pure Sikh was celebrated on
April 13 for many years.
In
Judaism, 13 signifies the age at which a boy matures and becomes a
Bar Mitzvah (Age of 12 for Girls, or Bat Mitzvah).
In Mesoamerican divination, 13 is the number of important cycles of fortune/misfortune (see
Trecena).
The number of Norse gods (there were 12) at a banquet that was crashed by the evil god
Loki (making 13) who killed
Baldr with an arrow/spear made out of mistletoe using
Hodr, thus marking the beginning of
Ragnarok.
The number 13 is associated with bad luck in some countries, and even has a specifically recognized
phobia, Triskaidekaphobia, a word which was coined in 1911.
Friday the 13th has been considered an unlucky day since the 1800s, as a combination between an unlucky day, Friday, and the number 13.
In
Sikhism, the number 13 is considered a special number since 13 is
tera in
Punjabi, which also means "yours" (as in, "I am yours, O Lord"). The legend goes that when
Guru Nanak Dev was taking stock of items as part of his employment with a village merchant, he counted from 1 to 13 (in Punjabi) as one does normally; and thereafter he would just repeat "tera", since all items were God's creation. The merchant confronted
Guru Nanak about this, but found everything to be in order after the inventory was checked. April 13 also usually turns out to be
Vaisakhi every year, which is the Sikh New Year and the major Sikh Holiday.
In
Italy, 13 is also considered to be a lucky number, although in
Campania the expression 'tredici' (meaning 13) is said when one considers their luck to have turned for the worse.
Colgate University also considers 13 to be a lucky number. They were founded in 1819 by 13 men with 13 dollars, 13 prayers, and 13 articles. (To this day, members of the Colgate community consider the number 13 a good omen.) In fact, the campus address is 13 Oak Drive in Hamilton, NY and the all men a cappella group is called the Colgate 13.
In
tattoo culture, where symbols often represent the opposite of their most obvious meaning, 13 sometimes symbolizes good luck, especially in "old school" (meaning traditional) style tattoos.
Panel from an elevator with no floor button #13.The number of colonies that formed the
United States. The original
flag had thirteen stars, one for each state. New stars have since been added whenever a new state joins the union, but the idea of adding stripes for new states was soon dropped, so the American flag to this day has thirteen horizontal stripes: six white ones and seven red ones.
In the Great Seal of the United States there are 13 olive leaves (with 13 olives), 13 arrows, and 13 stars. These form a triangle over the eagle with the number 13 on each point. On the reverse the pyramid has 13 levels.
The number of guns in a gun
salute to U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps Major Generals, and Navy and Coast Guard Rear Admirals Upper Half.
Rondeau is a poem with 13 lines in some variants.
In some countries, the number 13 is
considered unlucky and building owners will sometimes purposefully omit a floor so numbered.
[2]In the
shojo manga Fruits Basket, 13 members of the sohma family are cursed with the twelve animal spirits of the
Chinese Zodiac, plus the cat who was, according to legend left out of the Zodiac.
The
Midnighters Trilogy by
Scott Westerfeld is a book entirely based on the number 13. All the spells are based on thirteen letter words. The houses all have 13 pointed stars on the doorways. The town where it takes place,
Bixby,
Oklahoma has thirteen letters.
There are 13 singers in the cancer fundraiser song, Just Stand Up(to cancer).
Apollo 13 was the only unsuccessful mission by the United States of America intended to land humans on the moon. The explosion of an oxygen tank on April 13, 1970 sent the flight crew and ground crews into several days of intense survival mode. Three astronauts returned safely to Earth. Although the primary objective of the mission failed, it is one of the most famous and inspiring space adventures in the history of the planet Earth.
there originally used to be 13 Latin Zodiac signs with the 13th, and last one being
Serpentarius.
1453, April 2-May 29 - Siege and Fall of
Constantinople (now
Istanbul): The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror ends the Byzantine Empire by capturing the city. The sum of the numbers of 1453=> 1+4+5+3=
13
I hope this cleat things up... feel free to post your person interpretation on the 13--
Shit, my address is 1511... 15+11=26 /2= 13!!!!