h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Thirteen Club: Debunkers or Mythmakers? - A87860091
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni - U1590784

Yes, I know we already have a 'Friday the 13th' entry in the Guide. (It's linked to, and an update request is on its way to Editorial Feedback.) But this is the result of assiduous research on my part, trying to put paid to what I regard as the ridiculous notion that most people in the Middle Ages actually had, or used, calendars.

Anyhow, I thought it was funny.

Middle ages, calendars, actually calendrical time keeping was usually done a church deacon charged with fixing the dates of the holy days, what Copernicus did for a living before going on to create modern astronomy.

Other expedients in that mostly illiterate age included tally sticks* to keep track of days between rent payments, also serving as receipts.




Tally sticks, sticks with notches cut in them representing days and/or payments, split lengthwise to prevent cheating, put together, the two sides had to match.




Also, just in case you haven't already seen it, new listing at Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49972

I enjoyed this Entry.

I would guess that the avoidance of 13 people at the table is older because it immediately reminded me of Sleeping Beauty (the 13th fairy isn't invited to the Party, allegedly because of the lack of a 13th golden plate).

Thanks, Tav. I suspect you're right about the number 13 and gatherings being older. Certainly older than this Friday the 13th nonsense.

But I didn't remember that version of Sleeping Beauty. Is it that way in Grimm? I'll have to look.

This is intriguing and good fun.

I wondered whether the section headed 'Triskaidekaphobia' was potentially confusing, saying that the fear of the number 13 goes back a long way, then that the refusal to have 13 people at a dinner party only dates back to the early 19th century.


Incidentally, do you remember the fate of Apollo 13?

Yes, it's the Grimm version of Sleeping Beauty.
I even found it in German with translation to English:

http://germanstories.vcu.edu/grimm/dorn_dual.html

I've reworded a bit, and split a paragraph.

Thanks for the link, Tav. I've known a version of that story all my life, but didn't remember how the Kinder- und Hausmaerchen version went.

There is a popular myth about the Royal Navy http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/6896203.stm although there is no truth in it, I have heard it repeated many times

One thing that I have seen is that while a high-rise building is under construction the floors are just numbered in order, including 13. When the final elevators (lifts) are installed they skip the 13th floor. We often measure the floors at the construction stage, and after manufacturing the product, install it after the floor numbers have been changed. This has caused some confusion over the years.

I once worked on a Chinese-American retirement home and they had a note in the project package that they would skip floor number 4, as the number sounds like 'death' in Chinese and is considered very unlucky.

Just thought you might find this interesting.

I wish I could have been post 13



F S

Heh-heh. Thanks for the link!

I kept running into that Chinese superstition, too.

This is an excellent entry, Dmitri.

I had never heard of a superstition about Fridays in general until I read "Diary of a Pilgrimage" by Jerome K Jerome, published in 1891, in which a character pours scorn on the idea of never going on a journey on a Friday, and states that he did it once to prove the superstition wrong and discovered that he had a great time. In fact he would always arrange his journeys to be on a Friday if possible.

The only suggestion I have to improve the entry is this:

This is true today --> This is still true today

Hey, thanks for the read - and the suggestion.

Very interesting

Interesting piece. If you include the (unrelated) 1933 film 'Friday the Thirteenth', there are in fact already 13 films with the name.

I didn't know that. Let me see if I can get it in a note, thanks!

Done - and a link to the film, in case anyone wants to watch it. (I do.)

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