Top 5 mythical beliefs involving ‘magic numbers’

In Spain, you can say so many things about Friday the thirteenth and nobody would bat an eyelash. However, when the thirteenth falls on a Tuesday, superstitious people get scared to even take out their trash.

The whole idea stems from Mars the god of war. His name is gotten from Tuesday in Spanish since he dominated Tuesdays. It is also believed that Constantinople fell on Tuesday, 13th April 1024. What’s more, the famous bible story where God confused the builders of the Tower of Babel was said to have happened on Tuesday the 13th.

This is one number we find sexy, after all, who doesn't like good fortune? The Chinese people believe that the number 8 brings good fortune. A lot of businesses put the number 8 in their price tag because it has been said to help sell things faster. People even insist on staying on the 8th floor of apartments with units that have 8 in them.

In a lot of cultures 7 means perfection, but on the flip side 4 spells doom to others. Did you know that the fear of the number “4” is known as tetraphobia and it is very common? Asian people avoid the number 4 like crazy because it sounds like the word ‘death’ in Chinese.

We hate to be the spoiler of fun things, but if you planned to send your Asian friend a set of four gift packages for the coming holidays, you might want to reconsider doing that. This is because superstitious Asians believe it’s dangerous to receive gifts in four’s and multiples of four.

Among Christians, 666 is regarded as the number of the seven-headed beast with ten horns as described in the book of Revelations. Rumors have it that the Antichrist will coerce people to get this number. In fact, many Americans believe that the number has already been encoded in different industries today, including healthcare and education. We bet you’ve heard this one before. Did you also know that Highway 666 in the U.S. is known as the ‘Devil's highway’, because of so many accident occurrences?

And yet another unlucky number! The number 23 is said to allude to bad luck, and that is for good reasons. Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times. When you consider the birth year (1967) and death year (1994) of Kurt Cobain, what similarity do you notice they have to 23? If you added the figures 1,9,6, and 7 (sum is 23) and 1,9,9, and 4 (sum is also 23) then you’re right.

Want more proof that the number 23 spells bad luck? The famous attack on the Twin Towers took place on 9/11/2001. 9 + 11 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 1 = 23. Be careful the next time you see the number 23 pop up in a weird fashion.