Thirteen!
So, it's the thirteenth of August, 2026. 13. A number which apparently really makes people uneasy and worried. I have never been really scared of 13. But I know people who are. So, why? Why is 13 so feared and unlucky, to the point that high rise buildings don't have 13th floors, rooms aren't numbered 13, and more?

Apparently there are a couple of reasons - and none of them make a lot of sense to me. It seems 13th is disliked and feared because of Norse and Christian mythology, at least in part. In Norse mythology, Loki, the god of mischief, crashed a feast to which 12 gods had been invited. Loki was the 13th and he wasn't invited. He showed up anyway and started a fight between two of the gods, who were brothers, Hödr, the blind god of darkness, and Baldr the god of light, joy and purity. Hödr shot Baldr with mistletoe (Loki had to aim and do all of that for him) and Loki had a laugh. And the death of Baldr started the countdown to Ragnarök - the end of the Norse world.

The shooting of Baldr by his blind brother Hödr from this article about Loki.

And of course, at the Last Supper, Judas was the 13th one to dip his bread and he betrayed Jesus. The next day Christ was crucified. Supposedly on a Friday. No wonder Friday the 13ths are supposed to be unlucky!

It used to be thought that the code of Hammurabi, one of the world's oldest legal documents, skips over a 13th law, letting people know 13 was disliked even back then. But 'In reality, the omission was no more than a clerical error made by one of the document’s earliest translators who failed to include a line of text—in fact, the code doesn’t numerically list its laws at all.'

Fear of 13 may have to do with the usual hatred of pre-Christian traditions and beliefs that arose during the early middle ages. If one follows the lunar calendar, there are 13 months in a year; 13 lunar cycles (and 13 menstrual cycles). This was part of the worship of goddesses and 'earth based spirituality'. The Roman Christian church standardized the solar calendar into 12 months, and the lunar calendar became associated with paganism and the feminine. Gotta wipe those out!

Fear of the number 13 is called triskaidekaphobia and fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia. I suffer from neither, at least, yet...

Ok, Here's the open thread! What's up, whatcha doing? Reading? Thinking? Listening to? Remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!