IVE GOT YOUR

NUMBER

NEGATIVE MEANINGS & NUMERICAL SUPERSTITIONS AROUND THE GLOBE

Numbers like 13 and 666 have connotations familiar to many Westerners, but what about unlucky numbers in other parts of the world? Whether youre traveling to a foreign country or marketing to international customers, use the guide below to navigate numerical danger zones!

250
39
27 227

55555
7456

3 169 167

4 1697

13

43 4

2227

Ever heard of tetraphobia?

Its the fear of the number four.
In Chinese, the word for 4 sounds like the word death. Many product lines skip the number 4, such as Nokia cell phones and Canon PowerShot G series after G3, there is a G5, but no G4.

If you repeat the number 5 several times, it replicates the sound of crying, and is sometimes used in internet slang to convey sadness, just like this emoticon in the West: :..(

In Mandarin, 7456 sounds like to make me angry, and is sometimes used as shorthand slang on the internet.

The number 250 can mean imbecile if read a certain way, and can be used as an insult.

Like in Chinese, in Japanese, the number 4 is pronounced shi, which is also the word for death.

Gifts, such as sets of plates or silverware, are never given in sets of four but in sets of three or five.

Hospitals and hotels in Japan often do not have levels or even rooms with the numbers 4 and 9 in them. The room number 43 is avoided in hospitals in Japan, especially in the maternity and newborn care wards. When pronounced aloud, it can sound like still birth. The number 9 is often pronounced ku, which means suffering. When learning to count aloud, children are taught to use words other than shi and ku. Many people avoid purchasing houses with addresses that contain these numbers too.

In Hong Kong, some high-rise buildings that have a 50th floor may only have 35 floors. Some buildings remove not just the 4th floor, but every floor that contains the number 4 (4, 14, 24, 34, and floors 40-49). When spoken aloud, combinations like 167, 169, and 1679 are dirty jokes in Hong Kong culture. The words for 7 and 9 in Cantonese sound similar to insulting words for male genitals, and the word for 6 sounds similar to another impolite word.

Many buildings also lack a 13th floor due to Western beliefs that 13 is unlucky.

For some Vietnamese, its considered bad luck to have 3 people in photos. The person in the middle will supposedly die.

In some parts of Afghanistan, the number 39 is considered unlucky. Many Afghans with the number 39 in their cell phone numbers will block people from seeing their numbers when they call, or switch numbers altogether. Cars with license plates containing the number 39 are mocked in Kabul.

XX-XX

To avoid being ridiculed, some 39-year-olds will tell people they are one less than 40.

NIGERIA BENIN

CHAD KENYA
In all of these countries, any number that ends in 7 is considered unlucky.

What is heptadecaphobia?
The fear of the number seventeen.

VIXI

When viewed in Roman numeral form, XVII, it can be changed anagrammatically to vixi, which in Latin means I have lived, implying that the person is dead. The word was found on ancient tombstones.

In Italy, Renault sold its R17 model as R177, due to heptadecaphobia, the fear of the number 17 in Italian culture.

In the 2006 Winter Olympics, the track used for the luge and bobsleigh called the 17th turn Senza Nome, which means without name, instead of referring to its number.

In some parts of Italy, the number 13 is considered lucky.

Looking for the 17th floor? You wont find one in many Italian buildings.

Six hundred and sixty-six is considered synonymous with the devil, due to it being listed as the number of the beast in the Christian bible. However, in Asia, the pronunciation of 666 sounds like the phrase, things going smoothly and is considered to be very lucky. People often put this number over their door or window for good luck.

No one really knows why the number 13 is considered unlucky.

Some believe it is because of a Norse legend in which 12 gods sit down to a banquet, when the 13th uninvited god shows up, killing one of the other gods. Likewise, many believe that Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th man to sit down at the Last Supper. Others believe that the number 13 is unlucky because of pagan traditions observing a calendar of 13 lunar months per year.

13

While the number 13 is common for many highways, in Ontario, Canada, Route 13 was skipped.

Many airlines do not have a row number 13 in their planes.

Many buildings in the West either skip the 13th floor or give it an alternate designation such as "12A" or "M" (the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet). Others close public access to the 13th floor.

In contrast, Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Greeks believed that 13 was a lucky number.

Friday the 13th is considered a bad luck day in many western cultures. In most of Latin America, it isnt Friday the 13th, but Tuesday the 13th that is considered unlucky. The same is true in Romania, Greece, and some parts of Spain.