If you worked as a "Quatorzième" what would your job be?

Quatorzième is simply French for "fourteenth". A person known as a "Quatorzième" is employed for the express purpose of adding a dinner guest to a dinner party where, without the addition, there would only be thirteen guests.

There is a long-standing superstition that the thirteenth guest (or, alternatively, the first guest to rise from the party of thirteen) is destined for a tragedy. Judas, for example, was the first guest to rise at the thirteen-member Last Supper and the first to die thereafter. In the Norse tradition, Loki the trickster god invited himself to a feast of twelve warriors and, by his presence as the thirteenth guest, brought about the death of Balder, a famed Norse warrior.

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36 Comments

Ilias Tsiabardas

I am available for the Job

Chris Braid

Very interesting question and explanation thanks.

Bill0325

This was a good question and explanation - how do I get this kind of job? 😎

nsbthdoc

It doesn’t count since he came back to life ! Jas Newman,

Rosapel

Good question and informative answer. I learned something new today.

steve

It would not be an unreasonable association to a triskaidekaphobia sufferer.

Debbie H Worcester

Great question! I know my French but I'd never heard of this "role". It does make sense though!

Cheryl Maxwell

Wow! I learned something new!! Great question.

Pat Wells

There's probably college major in this area.

Robin Heckler

Excellent question and a great job to have. Get paid to have someone buy your dinner every night. Surely you must eat well. Hopefully you gig yourself out to different restaurants so you get a good variety of meals. I wouldn't want to be on staff at the same place every single night. That might get old.But as a gig job, it would be excellent. A different place and different cuisine every night.Marvelous.Maybe even get to see a show with the meal on occasion.

Jas Newman

"Judas, for example, was the first guest to rise at the thirteen-member Last Supper and the first to die thereafter." I though Jesus was the first to die thereafter.