Various, and in different peoples. The “curse”, in general, has to do with the culture, religion and history of a people, in addition to the phonetics of the language – the Japanese and Chinese, for example, are afraid of numbers that sound like bad words. In China, 14 is feared because its pronunciation resembles the words “want to die”, although in some countries in South America, the number is considered lucky, as it is twice 7, which symbolizes perfection for Jews and Christians. . There are other curious cases, such as Italy, where some airlines do not have planes with row number 17.
fractions of fear
Digits are associated with historical events and language peculiarities
17 – Roman Curse
The number 17 is ominous in Italy. In Roman numerals, it is written as XVII. When the letters are shuffled, they form the word VIXI, which, in Latin, means “my life is over”. The fear is such that Renault’s R17 model car is sold there as an R177.
4,233 – Cursed Drawing
The Egyptians are famous for their hieroglyphics, those intriguing designs that functioned almost like their own alphabet. The hieroglyph for the number 4,233 could be interpreted as a young pharaoh being murdered. Needless to say, they didn’t like the number very much…
666 – Demonic Record
According to the biblical book of Revelation, 666 is the number of the devil. In the Old Testament, in chapter (guess the number?) 13, it says that “the number of the beast … is six hundred and sixty-six”. The association may date back to the 1st century when Nero was persecuting Christians. He was called a “beast” and the letters in his name correspond to the number 666.
13 – The Mark of the Traitor
Christians link the number 13 to Judas, the 13th apostle to arrive at the Last Supper and who later betrayed Jesus. Some also believe that Christ was crucified on Friday the 13th. But the Jews believe that the number is lucky: in the Hebrew alphabet, the 13th letter of the alphabet corresponds to the number 40, linked to purification.
40 – Arachnid sins
Russians are not fans of the number 40, like Hebrews. For them, it is a very unlucky number, as they believe that the spirits of the dead roam the Earth for 40 days after death. Russians also believe that for every spider you kill, 40 sins will be forgiven.
42 – Bad omen
The Japanese are terrified of the number 42. When they pronounce the number 4 and 2 in a row, they seem to say “go die”. And any variation is bad too: 420 sounds like «dead spirit» and 24 sounds like «double death». They take the superstition so seriously that many hospitals don’t even have rooms numbered 42.
– In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 42 is the answer to Life’s Ultimate Question. the author says he chose the number at random.
SOURCES Book Do Not Openvarious authors, and website UOL.
Read too:
– What is the sound of the devil?
– The man who created the Fofão curse