Lock This Topic Too! (By Next New Year's Day!!!)

[Kade Rivok]

14,670

But yeah, I'm aware.  However, it is classically representative of evil and is generally regarded as such.  Kind like snakes, because the garden of Eden, in ye olden literature.

[Verdauga]

Well, still....it's like thirteen being an unlucky number.....There's little reason for it.

Interesting and pointless fact: When this topic gets locked, it will be around 600 pages for me.

[The Skarzs]

Why? What page are you on right now?

[Verdauga]

Page 14. What are you on?

[Kade Rivok]

14,666

Yours must be set up differently.  The default is 15 posts per page, which is why the counter started at 15,000, that way it's a countdown to 1,000 pages.  That being said, I'm on page 23.

[Verdauga]

Yeah, I modified my profile to show twenty-five posts per page.

[The Skarzs]

Interesting.

[shisteer of nothing much]

Why is thirteen an unlucky number, anyway?

[Kade Rivok]

14,662

No clear cut answer, as far as I'm aware; there are various things it could have come from.  In ancient times, 12 was considered a "perfect" number and certain numerical systems where based on it, which still carries over to today in some aspects.  We have 12 months in a year, and a day is divided into two 12 hour segments.  So, since they considered 12 to be perfect, 13 could be seen as lacking or unusual.  Another place it could have come from was at the last supper.  Judas was the 13th guest to arrive, and of course he was also the one who betrayed Jesus.

[Verdauga]

It doesn't mention which of the disciples was the last to arrive; but Judas could have been construed as the thirteenth member...
On the other hand, he was the twelfth Disciple, so technically Christ would have been the thirteenth......
But the Israelites marched around Jericho thirteen times before God knocked down the walls, so thirteen was unlucky for Jericho.

[Booklover]

And the 13th Norse god was Loki, the trickster.


Interestingly (or probably just a boring fact for most of you), in Harry Potter, when Trelawney says that if there are 13 people at a table then the first to rise will be the first to die,

Spoiler

there were already 13 because of Pettigrew. Dumbledore was the first of them to rise and also the first to die. Later on, in Order of the Phoenix, there are 13 people at a table and I believe it's Sirius who's the first to rise and therefore the first to die.

[close]

Also, chapter 13 is always when something bad happens.

[Verdauga]

That is actually interesting. As for the chaptering, did Rowling plan that out, I wonder?

[Booklover]

Probably. If so, the only bit of maths she actually got right.

[Kade Rivok]

14,657

HAH

[Booklover]

If it gets locked at 15,000, then surely, as I believe your comment was the 343rd, then it would be 14,657.