The evidence is strong, my unlucky number's ???? (ah oh ah oh)

July 28, 2024 5:15 PM

I have lots of superstition reference books but for some reason I am having trouble finding lucky/unlucky number information beyond the basics. I'll go with 13 if I need to (something creative I'm working on), but I would love it if one of you could help with something less obvious.

Are there any numbers that are well associated with either a place of protection or a place of danger? Or just plain bad/unlucky? I'd love examples from any cultural or historical framework, but eastern European is a plus.

posted by queensissy to Religion & Philosophy (11 answers total)

Best answer: Hospitals in Japan sometimes do not have fourth floors in the same way that many U.S. buildings do not have 13th floors, because four is the number of death. This appears to derive from the fact that the words for four and death are very close in pronunciation.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 5:27 PM on July 28 [3 favorites]

Best answer: If you happen to be shopping for real estate in an area with a lot of people from China it's hard to not notice how many listings have tons of the number 8 (and to a lesser extent, 6) in the price. Why list at 700k when 688880 is right there?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerology explains this and many more numeric associations.
posted by potrzebie at 6:42 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In Italy, Friday 17th is roughly equivalent to Friday 13th in the English-speaking world.
posted by misteraitch at 10:13 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Just to add for the East Asian side - a lot of the generic truisms about lucky or unlucky numbers is basically driven by homonyms so number combos are basically a pun of some kind. Otherwise regardless of which cultural flavour, if numerology is a thing it would be very personal and derived usually from your birth chart.

In some muslim cultures, there's a little fun thing that's related to the agreed upon number of the attributes of God, which is 99. If you look at your palms, the typical veins would resemble ١٨ and ٨١ which would be 18 and 81, so that's seen as a sign of God.
posted by cendawanita at 10:16 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In medieval England, the number 3 was always associated with the Christian Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In a more sinister interpretation, the number could also be a sign of Satan mocking the Trinity as he inflicted some evil on you.

It was said that Satan knocked on your door three times when he arrived to claim your soul, for example. I've also seen references in old folk ballads to vengeful ghosts ripping their victims into three pieces or seeing to it that a ship they've just sabotaged rotates three times before it sinks to the bottom with their killer on board.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:50 AM on July 29 [1 favorite]

If you look at your palms, the typical veins would resemble ١٨ and ٨١ which would be 18 and 81

(Crease lines - the ones that deepen as you slightly cup your hands - not veins, right?)
posted by trig at 1:16 AM on July 29

I think so! It's the ones people look at for palmistry... Sorry, in my head they're lifelines hence my choice of description, lol.
posted by cendawanita at 1:18 AM on July 29

For protection numbers, Googling "angel numbers" will find you a lot of material
posted by Jacqueline at 8:53 AM on July 29 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I think I say this every time I post a question, but I really do love this community! Your answers are absolutely top notch and exactly what I was looking for.

And potrzebie, the situation you're describing is one reason why I posted this! When we were selling my mom's house last year in Silicon Valley, the real estate agent went through a very extensive numerology consultation before deciding on the list price. And then the Chinese buyer countered with a price that didn't seem to fit any of the parameters that had been explained, so I was wanting more information on the whole thing.
posted by queensissy at 9:21 AM on July 29

Probably not helpful for your purposes, but in cricket in England, the number 111 (‘Nelson') is said to be unlucky, so if a batsman or side is on 111 they have superstitions about it. But the Aussies say the unlucky number is 87 (100-13).
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:38 PM on July 29 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Bloxworth Snout, that is actually kind of great in a tangential way that I want to fit in to the project now. YOU GUYS GOT ME EXCITED ABOUT MY PROJECT AGAIN!
posted by queensissy at 10:32 AM on July 30