I just read a blog about a Chinese family recieving a tea set as gift from a Japanese family. The thing is the set only came with 3 tea cups. The Chinese family thought it was strange because the family had 4 members. Why the missing tea cup? it turns out that even numbers are considered unlucky in Japan.
So this got me curious, What is considered unlucky/lucky in your culture? In Chinese, 4 is considered bad because the pronounciation is alike to the pronounciation of death. 8 is considered lucky because it sounds like 'fa' which means you got rich.
post away~

SiZ.FaNtAsY

Korea (South)1497 Posts

July 02 2007 16:10 GMT

666 means the devil.
So yeah, that's an evil number ^^
However 999 is a good number since it's odd XD meaning angel.

Storchen

Sweden4385 Posts

July 02 2007 16:13 GMT

7 and 21 is considered lucky. 3 is considered somewhat a holy number..
13 is bad luck. Friday 13th and so on. I've heard that in some countries they skip the 13th floor in higher houses. They go from 12 to 14 -_-

KwarK

United States42691 Posts

July 02 2007 16:14 GMT

On July 03 2007 01:10 SiZ.FaNtAsY wrote:
666 means the devil.
So yeah, that's an evil number ^^
However 999 is a good number since it's odd XD meaning angel.

Although like so many things in the bible it appears the 666 thing was a mistranslation. There is a number of the devil, but I don't think it was 666. It's ingrained in popular culture now like the whole virgin Mary thing (the prophesy actually read the Mesiah would be born of a young woman (basically a maid/maiden mistake)). I read a fairly good article on comparisons between the KJV and the original versions.

haduken

Australia8267 Posts

July 02 2007 16:14 GMT

It's 777 the number for angel?

Why is 13 bad luck? what's the story behind that?

HappyFeetO_O

China350 Posts

July 02 2007 16:15 GMT

On July 03 2007 01:14 Kwark wrote:

Show nested quote +

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast

Most ancient source gave the number as 616

FirstBorn

Romania3955 Posts

July 02 2007 16:27 GMT

Someone told me my lucky numbers are : 7, 13, 21. He's been right so far.

Superiorwolf

United States5509 Posts

July 02 2007 16:30 GMT

Yeah, Chinese lucky number is 8.

"Why is 13 bad luck? what's the story behind that? "
12 Witches and the Devil

nemY

United States3119 Posts

July 02 2007 16:31 GMT

The numbers I generally found to be the most lucky are the ones I found on the backs of the fortune cookies the chinese waitress gave me after i ate my food

Hans-Titan

Denmark1711 Posts

July 02 2007 16:42 GMT

#10

On July 03 2007 01:13 Storchen wrote:
7 and 21 is considered lucky. 3 is considered somewhat a holy number..
13 is bad luck. Friday 13th and so on. I've heard that in some countries they skip the 13th floor in higher houses. They go from 12 to 14 -_-

Same here.

One Page Memory

Bulgaria2145 Posts

July 02 2007 16:45 GMT

#11

13 is Garry Kasparov's lucky number. He has many successes with this number.
I personally don't have one, but a friend of mine has - 26, and it's working. One night we went to bingo for first time in his life and hi hitted bingo with 26 first try, then we proceeded to the roulette table where he doubled his cash again with 26. It was weird night.

Zealbomb!

Korea (South)153 Posts

July 02 2007 16:49 GMT

#12

On July 03 2007 01:30 Superiorwolf wrote:
Yeah, Chinese lucky number is 8.

"Why is 13 bad luck? what's the story behind that? "
12 Witches and the Devil

More than that, many other coincidences with that number, many things with Christian history with bad things. It is Day of Knights Templar destruction and following similiar occurences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_templar

Taiche

France1963 Posts

July 02 2007 17:02 GMT

#13

On July 03 2007 01:14 haduken wrote:
Why is 13 bad luck? what's the story behind that?

I think it's because Judas was the 13th guest at the Ultima Cena and since he betrayed Jesus the number 13 is supposed to be unlucky (and that's also why it is generally not "recommended" to have 13 guests for a meal).

Luddite

United States2315 Posts

July 02 2007 17:29 GMT

#14

88 is often used by neo-nazi groups to mean Heil Hitler, because H is the 8th letter of the alphabet. Not really an "unlucky" number, I guess, but still has bad connotations.

minus_human

4784 Posts

July 02 2007 17:42 GMT

#15

On July 03 2007 02:29 Luddite wrote:
88 is often used by neo-nazi groups to mean Heil Hitler, because H is the 8th letter of the alphabet. Not really an "unlucky" number, I guess, but still has bad connotations.

Are you serious? I had no idea...

Hey everyone, are you thinking what I'm thinking? iNcontroL where have you hidden you little nazi

HeadBangaa

United States6512 Posts

July 02 2007 17:45 GMT

#16

I noticed people to pick out a digit from their birth year, and make it their "favorite number".

Pika Chu

Romania2510 Posts

July 02 2007 18:20 GMT

#17

3 and 7 here. 7
In all popular stories there are 3 knights, 7 headed monsters, 3 princess, 7 talking trees etc.

Tadzio

3340 Posts

July 02 2007 18:26 GMT

#18

The number 7 is considered lucky but I couldn't guess why precisely. A priest once told me that the word "luck" derives from Lucifer, so maybe it's a bad number but through ignorance it's turned into a good one... dunno.

In the west, the number 6 is thought to have power because it is the first "perfect number." The reason it is considered a perfect is because the sum of its proper positive divisors is equal to itself. So, 1+2+3=6. The second "perfect number" is 28-- 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14=28-- but it doesn't receive as much attention. 6 also has a the fairly rare property that its exponents also end in the number six. So, 6^2=36, 6^3=216, 6^4=1296 ... 6^10=60466176, and so on.

The only other number that I'm aware that shares this latter property is the number 5. 5^2=25, 5^3=125, etc. and it's also considered a powerful number. Early Christian myth infused the pentgram (usually the pentangle, but also the pentacle), or infinite loop, as a symbol for 5 social virtues: 1) generosity, 2) charity, 3) spiritual/physical cleanliness, 4) courtesy, and 5) pity. The number 5 also represents the number of wounds Jesus suffered the number of "joys" the virgin Mary had (annunciation, nativity, resurrection, ascension, and assumption). It's not insignificant that humans have 5 fingers and toes on each hand/foot, and also 5 extremities coming off the body (2 arms, 2 legs, head). Early religions clung to number symbolism like this, probably because it made remembering religious stories via oral tradition much easier. When you're telling a story, its much easier to memorize it if most things have a familiar number of parts. So the creation of the world took 6 days. The trinity is made up of 3 parts. There are 5 virtues, etc etc. And then the symbolism of these numbers is carried on through the stories.

Early Christianity probably picked up on the "power of numbers" because Zoroastrianism was such a heavy influence on fundamental Christian beliefs. There were many numbers that held significance in Zoroastrianism, but 5 seems to be particularly important. (The influence of zoroastrianism = Around 1600 BC, Zoroaster, a priest of the Indo-Europeans who were invading Southern Asia, had a vision of the one true God of Good, Ahura Mazda, who fights the Evil One, all humans are free to choose between Good and Evil, we will all be judged, and there will come a savior of the human race to bring the world to an end. Christians tacked on the resurrection and anti-christ belief when they made Jesus their savior. Its hard to maintain a religion based on the end of the world-- or rapture-- if the chosen savior, the guy who's supposed to bring about the time of judgment, dies before the end of the world. Judaism was also a heavy influence on Christianity, but we're talking about numbers here.) However, the number 5 is given a lot of significance by many cultures, so the link between Christianity's and Zoroastrianism's fascination with it may be a little tenuous.

Google "numerology" if you find this stuff interesting. There's all sorts of stuff out there about the significance of numbers-- most of it is complete feel-good drivel in the same way astrology and horoscopes are drivel, but some people get a kick out of it.

mAKiTO

Colombia4171 Posts

July 02 2007 18:29 GMT

#19

666