in

Love ItLove It WINWIN

Photobombing – Black And White Friday the 17th

I don’t know if it’s a proper photo-bombing, because it was involuntary.

It doesn’t matter, as I wanted to talk of something else.

 

I thought everyone considered Friday the 17th to be a day of bad luck.

I needed to make a quick research and the results were: Italians, Italians, Italians.

Fine. It looks like Friday the 17th is only unlucky for the Italians.

 

Wikipedia says this belief comes from the Roman way of writing the number, XVII, which is the anagram of VIXI, often found in the epitaphs on the tombs of dead people, and it means “I lived”, and this links the number 17 to death.

 

Another theory where the Romans are involved is the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, where the Germans annihilated three of the legions of General Varus, during the Empire of Augustus. These legions were exactly the 17th, 18th and 19th. These numbers ended up having a bad reputation because of this loss.

 

The Greeks come with a funny explanation why 17 is bad.

The Pythagoreans simply despised the seventeen because it divided the two numbers that could be both the perimeter and area of the same quadrangle. These two numbers were, of course, 16 and 18.

If a square has the side length of 4, the perimeter is 4+4+4+4=16 and the area is 4×4=16.

If a rectangle has the height of 3 and the length of 6, or vice versa, the perimeter is 3+3+6+6=18 and the area is 3×6=18.

Thankfully this was easy math.

 

The number 17 is also linked to the Great Flood of the Old Testament. The flood took place on the 17th day of the 2nd month, and it ended on the 17th day of the 7th month.

 

The fear of the number 17 is called eptacaidecaphobia.

  • Question of

    Did you know the number 17 was unlucky in Italy?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Are you afraid of number 17?

    • Yes
    • No

Report

What do you think?

30 Points

Written by sabtraversa

48 Comments

  1. I didn’t know that. 17 is a prime number …. but, anyway, I lived where the baseball team had a badge they gave out if the game went into extra innings, it was a night game, the team won, and you stayed. The ballpark was famous for being really cold and windy at night. Anyway, the badge said VENI VIDI VIXI. I made it my profile thing on YouTube. I like the VIXI – it has become my comment on the time I spent living in SF.

    1
    • Prime numbers are special, no wonder they’re often seen as sacred, and sometimes cursed too. That was good to know.
      I noticed there’s a repetition of number 8 in the Independence Day of Indonesia. The sum of the day gives 8, the month is 8, the year is 1, and the whole sum is 8, again.
      That truly makes sense, and it’s indeed amazing. ?

      1
  2. Well most I know that which was unlucky was Friday the 13th. I never heard about it from my family but my school friend Linda mentioned it and her family was very superstitious.
    I am wary of it but mostly ignore it

    1
    • I had to be told by my mother and boyfriend, or I wouldn’t have paid attention either. People my age are usually more concerned about Friday the 13th, than 17th.

      1
    • Alibb told me about 4, interesting to know it also affects Japan for the same reason. I think Friday the 13th is seen as unlucky about everywhere, but I don’t know what country started the phenomenon. ?

    • Hopefully it is only the notifications and virils aren’t deducted twice, but it’s hard to tell because the page with the ‘latest viril transactions’ doesn’t seem to work (on profile, virils, view all points).

      1
    • Thanks for asking! ? It’s kind of stale now, but hopefully the right decision will be taken once we get the chance. It had to do with my grandfather and his health condition, by the way.

      1
  3. my understanding was that the flood lasted for 40 days and nights. if that’s the case, how can it go from February 17th to July 17th? that’s some bad math…

    1
    • And you’re right. It rained for 40 days and nights. It was the flood waters that were drained 150 days later. Thanks for the correction, wish I could edit my posts. ?

      1
      • oh, I didn’t realize they were sailing around for that long. by the way, if the whole earth is flooded, where does the water drain to, exactly?

        1
          • I suppose if you have the power to flood the world, you have the power to roll back the flood. Just saying, it wouldn’t be by draining or evaporation is all…

            1
        • There could have been less atmosphere, or less water compared to these days. Perhaps, there were many underground caves that could have absorbed the water. I like thinking there was a heavenly pump draining the water, but it could have been a huge sponge that was later removed.

          1
          • the water in the underground caves is always pure, but the flood water would’ve been a mixture of fresh and salt water. there is really no rational way to deal with a global flood. you’d need a miracle to get rid of it…

            1
        • Salt can also be found in form of a rock, and there are salt mines, but I don’t know if it’s the case. I gotta agree with you though. ?

          1
  4. I pity Friday… it seems to be the most unlucky day :p
    I guess unlucky numbers differs with culture… the Chinese dislike 4 because its pronunciation sounds similar to “die”… So we don’t have level 4 (and sometimes 13) in some buildings, especially hotels.

    1
    • Hehehe, yes, each culture has its own superstitions. Good to know about the Chinese and the number 4. I know the Chinese language has many words that sound alike, for example Mom and Horse, if I remember right. ?
      4 and Die is creepy though. ? 13 has become international instead. ?

  5. Thank you for this information because I only knew about Friday the 17th. I forgot that the flood waters were on the earth exactly 150 days or five months of 30 days.

    1
    • You’re very welcome. ? I’m not an avid Bible reader, I didn’t even know the Bible had so many dates. Do you have any clue what month, or season, does the new year begins with in the Bible? I doubt the first month is January and the last one is December like in the Gregorian Calendar, but perhaps it’s the same.

      1
    • I see. ? I was born on Sunday, but consider Tuesday to be my lucky day because of my zodiac sign. Well, I feel Tuesday closer because not many things are available to be done on Sundays anyway. ?
      Here the 13th is becoming more popular as unlucky among the younger generations, because of the movies, I suppose.

      1
    • It’s about the first day of weekend, I don’t get the hate either. ?
      Well, it seems to have a bad reputation among Christians because Jesus died on a Friday. Many Christians still avoid eating meat on Fridays, some even fast.

  6. This is new to me.. I always thought people considered only the no 13 to be unlucky. I lived .. seems to give meaning to those fears.

    1