Friday the Thirteenth
It's Friday the Thirteenth!!!
13 is my favorite number. When people ask me, "Why?" I reply, "Because most people are terrified of it." The fear of a number itself is one thing, but the lengths as which society has gone to in order to erase something as matter-of-factly as a number, is hilarious to me.
So, what did I do? I wrote a collection 13 stories based on the deliciously taboo number. This is part of the introduction. For the next 13 hours, use code Fri13 to get your free epub copy of "The Collection of Thirteen".
Introduction
Triskaidekaphobia - the fear of the number thirteen. This fear has a long history of mythological superstition. For instance, in Norse mythology, twelve deities were invited to a banquet in Valhalla. My favorite trickster, Loki, who is considered to be the god of mischief, aka the trickster god, heard about the invitation, realized he wasn’t among the chosen, and crashed the dinner party. At the event, another god, Balder, a favorite amongst the gods, perished, which they blamed on Loki, the thirteenth “guest”.
Similarly, in Christianity, thirteen people sat down for the Last Supper—Jesus and twelve disciples, one of whom being the traitor, Judas. After Judas was paid his silver for his betrayal, Judas killed himself in despair of his contribution to Jesus’ death.
The fear of 13 is so great in some countries that you can even hire someone to make your thirteen-guest dinner party go up to fourteen, just to avoid the number. Because Friday the thirteenth is especially looked down upon, some weddings, funerals, and other events are delayed just to avoid the day.
However, there are some who find the number, dare I say, lucky or just plain likable. For example, there was an opera composer, Richard Wagner (1813-1883), who loved the number. He composed thirteen operas and even disregarded his first name, Wilhelm, so that his name would be composed of thirteen letters. The United States’ twenty-eighth president did the same to his name, choosing to use his middle name, Woodrow, rather than his first name, Thomas, thereby creating thirteen letters in Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924). This president often broadcasted important decisions on the thirteenth day of the month, showing no fear for this normally “fearsome” number.
There once was a group, created by William Fowler, that started on September 13th, 1881 and was comprised of twelve British journalists and a waiter who was invited to dine with them when the original thirteenth member did not show up. The name of this anti-superstitious group was called the “London Thirteen Club”. Their mission was to reveal that the number wasn’t as unlucky as everyone feared. Through the years, other chapters formed in New York, Chicago, France and even a group of thirteen women from Iowa. Even though they did everything possible to disprove the fear, such as meeting on the thirteenth and having thirteen people sit at the table, the fear of the two-digit number was too great. After Fowler died suddenly in 1897, the interest began to dwindle. By the 1920s, the only thing you’d see about the club in the papers were the obituaries of its former members.
I challenge you to pick up a one-dollar bill and count how many references of the number thirteen you see. Look at the “The Great Seal”, which consists of the pyramid and the eagle’s shield. The number thirteen is quite prevalent. There are thirteen levels in the pyramid, thirteen stars in the “Seal of the Department of Treasury”, thirteen stars on top of the eagle, thirteen arrows in one of the eagle’s talons, and thirteen leaves and olives in the branches held in the eagle’s other talon. In this case, the number thirteen was to recognize the original thirteen colonies.
The number thirteen has always been a novelty to me. The fact that something as simple as a number could strike such intense fear into people is mind boggling. There are architects who design buildings and believe that taking said number off their elevator buttons will ease clients’ minds. The even crazier concept is that it works!
Because of this, my favorite number happens to be lucky number thirteen, so I devised a collection based around the so-called taboo number—thirteen stories that revolve around the number thirteen. The genre ranges a great deal, including fantasy, crime, thriller, romance, adventure, drama, and coming of age.
Before you get to the stories themselves, I have included a couple sentences that give a short synopsis for each short story. I hope you enjoy them!
Stay Curious,
Carolyn R. Stiles
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