176 replies to this topic

[sidel]

I've heard theres no 13th floor inside the elevators, that when people build the elevators, they skip the 13th floor because of superstition or something.

true?

[indeed]

Nope     every one i've been in has a 13th floor, if their are 13 or more floors obviously in the building

[Mad Manfred]

In "western" socities such as the UK, Europe, Australia and Northern America I seriously doubt it.

But...I've heard rumors about it being the case in China and Japan...of how they avoid the whole 13th floor thing.

Its nothing more than superstitious nonsense.


Edit: HOW they avoid it...I'm not sure...I think they simply don't number that particular floor.

Edited by Mad Manfred, 18 March 2006 - 08:04 AM.

[dragonlady_mothman]

I've heard there isn't a fourth floor in buildings in Japan.  The number four is bad luck because the character is pronounced the same as the character for "death"

[zandore]

Fear of the number 13 is called: Triskaidekaphobia   << A link


From the link:

Some buildings number their floors so as to skip the thirteenth floor entirely, jumping from floor 12 to floor 14 in order to avoid distressing triskaidekaphobics, or using 12a and 12b instead. An example is 1 Canada Square in Canary Wharf, the tallest building in the UK, which lacks a 13th floor. This is sometimes applied to house or room numbers as well. The same is also true of rows in aeroplanes.

Edited by zandore, 18 March 2006 - 02:12 PM.

[Stalker]

I HAVE seen elevators that skip the 13th floor, and go directly from 12 to 14.  However, the 13th floor IS still there, even if its labled as "14".  You can't physically skip a floor in a building

[Dante Rouseau]

I've noticed the same sort of thing recently when i've been flying back and forth between home and uni. On most if not all of the planes the numbered rows go up till 12 then skip straight to 14.

[dragonlady_mothman]

The Japanese fear of the number four is obvious...where does "thirteen" come from?

[Rykster]

I have seen many elevators that skip the "13th" floor.  It was a superstition.

[jobot37]

I've stayed at hotels where there is no marked thirteenth floor, and there was one where they had a thirteenth floor, they just didn't rent out the rooms on it or use it for anyhting but storage.

[Yelekiah]

Silly superstition but I guess it's for the convenience of guests. The 14th floor of course, is the 13th. oooooo

[QueenVixxen]

I live in a building with a 13th floor. However, this is the first building I have ever been in that has a 13th floor marked.

[Sofia Alexandra]

13 is supposed to be an unlucky number in general, some say if 13 people are dining together the first one to rise will soon die, and then there's the whole business with Friday the 13th.

[Tobias Shamtul]

ummm... sorry, but shouldnt this be in the urban legends thing?

[Pax Unum]

It is said: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year.

The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894).

Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue.

Many buildings don't have a 13th floor.

If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names).

There are 13 witches in a coven.

ancient civilizations weren't unanimous in their dread of 13. The Chinese regarded the number as lucky, some commentators note, as did the Egyptians in the time of the pharaohs.

sources suggest the number 13 was purposely vilified by the founders of patriarchal religions in the early days of western civilization because it represented femininity. Thirteen had been revered in prehistoric goddess-worshiping cultures, allegedly, because it corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days). The "Earth Mother of Laussel," for example, a 27,000-year-old carving found near the Lascaux caves in France often cited as an icon of matriarchal spirituality, depicts a female figure holding a cresent-shaped horn bearing 13 notches. According to this theory, as the solar calendar triumphed over the lunar with the rise of male-dominated civilization, so did the number 12 over the number 13

Paraskevidekatriaphobia: Fear of Friday the 13th