Surprising the unluckiest & luckiest numbers in the world
The concept of a "luckiest number" is largely subjective and varies across different cultures and individuals. In some cultures, certain numbers are considered lucky due to superstitions or cultural beliefs.
Numbers have always been important, but viewing the history of many ages many civilization have given some numbers importance on others on the basis of their significance on that particular civilization.
1. What is the luckiest number?
The concept of a "luckiest number" is largely subjective and varies across different cultures and individuals. In some cultures, certain numbers are considered lucky due to superstitions or cultural beliefs. For example:
- In many Western cultures, the number 7 is often considered lucky. This belief is influenced by its frequent appearance in religious texts and its association with good fortune in various contexts.
- In Chinese culture, the number 8 is considered very lucky because its pronunciation is similar to the word for "wealth" or "prosper."
- In Japanese culture, the number 9 is considered lucky because it sounds like the word for "long-lasting" or "eternity."
Ultimately, whether a number is considered lucky or not is often a matter of personal belief or cultural tradition rather than any inherent property of the number itself.
Some people are so averse to certain numbers that they avoid buying houses or getting phone numbers and license plates with their unlucky numbers. They’ll also avoid certain dates that have unlucky numbers (Friday the 13th, for example).
Around the world, the luckiest and unluckiest numbers stem from a variety of sources, including religion, math, history and, believe it or not, homonyms!
2. LUCKY NUMBERS:
The numbers which have relatively good impact on one’s life is said to be the lucky numbers (with respect to the belief of that person). The lucky numbers are suggested on the basis of one’s name, date of birth etc.
The Number 7 - Lucky: UK, USA, France, Netherland, or any country that is largely westernized
Reason: God making the universe in 7 days and the 7 deadly sins. However it also references the 7 wonders of the ancient world as well as the 7 planets of the ancient world. Just a lot of 7 in a lot of random events.
Unlucky: China, Vietnam,Thailand, or any country with Chinese influences
Reason: July or “the seventh month” is often a month for the ghost. Not the mushy and kid-oriented Halloween type of celebration, this month is where people pay respects to the death. Most of the time, the death is referred to as “Unfair Death”, and houses must offer fruit and food to the death or they will be haunted. Scary!
The Number 8 - Lucky: China, Japan, Vietnam, or any countries with a Chinese or Japanese influence
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Italy
3
Has always been the number that represents perfection, certainly has a biblical derivation, just think of the Divine Trinity.
17
Instead, it is the number of misfortune, the hypotheses provided are different, the first refers to the Roman number: XVII, which anagrams become VIXI, that is, I lived, therefore a kind of harbinger of death, according to a biblical thesis, instead, it is the day on which the Great Flood began.
Spain
15
A number that possesses a particular benevolent aura for all the Spanish-speaking peoples, it is no coincidence that the Feast of San Indalecio is May 15th, a great solemn procession animates the streets of the city of Almeria in Spain.
13
Considered an unlucky number because 13 was the number of participants at the Last Supper, hence the custom of avoiding tables of thirteen people, on pain of the death of the thirteenth invited.
Germany
4
Corresponding to the number of the leaves of a four-leaf clover, symbol par excellence of fortune because of its rarity, each leaf would correspond to a characteristic: Respect, Abundance, Love, Health.
13
Germany, like most of Europe, prefers not to use this number, so much so that the German combat aircraft, made as a successor to the He-112, instead of He-113, was called He-100 for superstition.
England – USA – Holland – France
7
Also, in this case, the number is closely related to the biblical tradition, where it is said that God built the world in seven days, seven moreover are the traditional planets of the solar system.
13
In all these countries, the number 13 must be avoided, for example in the USA, no aircraft has ever been called F-13, or at the Memphis Airport, there are no Gates A13, B13, and C13.
Norway
9
Number sacred according to the Nordic mythology, in which it is believed that the universe is formed by 9 worlds, supported by branches of the cosmic tree: Yggdrasill.
13
Very often, hotels and apartments do not have a floor or room with this number, moreover many airlines prefer to skip row number 13, so from 12 you go directly to the 14th
Sweden
3
As in Italy, even in Sweden, the number three represents perfection, a famous Swedish saying: “All good things come in groups of three”.
13
A number to be avoided even here, in many European countries if day 13 happens to Friday then bad luck increases, most likely this belief comes from the fact that Friday is the day of the death of Christ.
China
8
The number 8 is pronounced as the word “prosperity” (hachi), for this, it has been loaded with strong positive symbolism, so much so that for example, also in marketing strategies, where we prefer to indicate 9.99 rather than 10.00, for the Chinese, 9.98 is better.
The number is so important for the Chinese population that the Beijing Olympic Games started on 8/8/2008 at 8:08:08.
9
Next is the single-digit maximum number (male) in the Indo-Arabic system has only one character in Chinese and is the number indicating the emperor.
4
In China, Japan and Korea, Number 4 (四), has the same phonetic sound of the word death (死) ie shi… and, I believe there is nothing else to say.
7
The seventh month of the Chinese calendar is called “month of ghosts”, according to a legend, in this month the gates of hell are opened and the ghosts are free to circulate among the living.
There are some superstitions on the 7 related to the planes and recalled from the most recent tragedy that involved the flight Malaysia Airlines 17, a Boeing 777 crashed on 17/7 an aircraft delivered in 1997 and then in service for 17 years.
Japan
8
For the same reasons, here too the number eight is very popular with the population, moreover, it represents the “innumerable quantity”, immense.
9
In this case, the number nine is pronounced “Ku” that indicates the word suffering.
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3. UNLUCKY NUMBERS:
The numbers which exert a bad impact on one’s life are called unlucky numbers. Unlucky numbers depend on someone’s belief or experience with that particular number.
Most Unlucky Number in the World?
The numbers 4 and 13 seems to get the most avoidance. In Asian cultures, the number 4 is often associated with death - Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam all have words associated with death that sound similar to their words for the number 4. Tetraphobia, by the way, is the word for "fear of the number 4".
In Triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13)This is the reason 55 of 629 condo buildings in Manhattan, for example, "skipped" the 13th floor, according to The Atlantic. Those buildings either go from 12 to 14, or they rename the 13th floor something else, like “penthouse” or “mezzanine.”
Most common unlucky numbers:
- 13 – The hysteria surrounding unlucky 13 in Western culture has become so commonplace that an actual sickness called triskaidekaphobia; the fear of the number 13. You would be hard pressed to find a building with a 13th floor in North America. The origin of this superstition is mainly unknown. In the famous painting of Jesus at the Last Supper, the 13th person at the table, reading left to right, was Judas, who betrayed Jesus.
- Others believe it is because of the tie-in with 13 and the lunar cycle. 13 is the exact number of full moons in a calendar year, and since people have thought that the moon controls emotion and makes people a bit crazy, then 13 is bad luck. In many Persian cultures, 13 is unlucky as well, showing that this superstition crosses cultural borders. And of course, Friday the 13th is considered very bad luck.
- 4 number is bad luck in the Far East. The pronunciation of the number four in Japanese is very similar to the word death, and because of this, four has been considered bad luck in Japan, Korea and China. It is considered very bad luck to give a gift that is made up of four pieces to someone. Many buildings in heavily Asian areas do not have a fourth floor, much like the way North American cultures treat the number 13.
In Western culture, four isn’t necessarily considered lucky or unlucky, however, there are a few unlucky fours. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Christian bible, and most swear words are called “four letter words.
T/H.
