Triskadekaphobia
Happy Friday the 13th! The fear of 13 is widespread in Western culture. There are a number of reasons for it, ranging from 'traditional' to 'specious'. A lot of high-rise construction projects still pander to it by skipping 13 when they number the floors -- it's especially common in Las Vegas, where Lady Luck still holds court on a daily basis. Wikipedia has a decent article on the phenomenon of triskadekaphobia here . Other cultures fear other numbers. In Japan, 4 and 9 are held to be unlucky. The character for 4 can be read shi , which is also a reading belonging to the character for death, and the character for 9 can be read as ku , which also belongs to one of the characters for pain. Both 4 and 9 obviously have alternate readings, the tendency for euphemism being nearly universal among human cultures, which are usually used when counting: ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyuu , juu , from one to ten. Personally, I've always held 9 to be a...