Interesting facts turned up about number 13

Staff columnist

Today is Friday the 13th (cue dire music), which means for many people, it’s time to curl up in front of all those horribly cheesy horror flicks made in the 1980s and 1990s.

I have an obsession with reading the history and facts of anything that happens to relate to current things happening, so naturally, with this day of superstition approaching, I decided to read up on it.link Alisa Boswell

Here are some interesting things I found out:

• The superstition apparently dates all the way back to ancient civilizations in the cave man days.

• The Turks disliked the number 13 so much that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary.

• Many cities do not have a 13th Street or 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor.

• Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theo-dore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names.

• The ancient Egyptians believed the 13th stage of life was the eternal afterlife so 13 symbolized death in a good way, not in terms of dust and decay.

“Though Egyptian civilization perished, the symbolism conferred on the number 13 by its priesthood survived, we may speculate, only to be corrupted by subsequent cultures who came to associate 13 with a fear of death instead of a reverence for the afterlife,” wrote David Emery, a folklore and pop culture writer.

Alisa Boswell loves movies and literature and writes for the Portales News-Tribune. Contact her at [email protected] or 356-4481 or on Facebook at CMi staff-Alisa Boswell.