Fun Facts About Friday the 13th

TGIF! It's Friday! You can thank goodness it's Friday today unless you suffer from triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number thirteen. People have been afraid of Friday and of the number thirteen for centuries. On the other hand, some view thirteen as a lucky number.

Image by HarshLight on Flickr

The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California is full of thirteens. Friday the 13th is an especially fun time to take a tour at this landmark mansion and see how many times you'll see thirteen of something. Sarah Winchester believed magical thirteen would keep all the evil spirits at bay, the spirits she was convinced were haunting her family for producing the Winchester rifle.

Image by HarshLight on Flickr

She installed windows with thirteen panes, stairs with thirteen steps, and you can even see the thirteen hooks in the tiny blue séance room where she kept robes for her guests to wear when consulting with the dead. Be careful when you visit, however. There's a nasty drop from the door of the séance room to the kitchen below. That step (or lack of it) is a doozy!

Did I mention the mansion has thirteen bathrooms? Each of these bathrooms has a drain cover with thirteen holes. Just in case you were wondering.

The house also has a recurring motif of spiderwebs, many designed in thirteen parts. You can see a hidden stash of furniture, window glass, and carpeting in the lower floors of the house with this design.

Honestly, you could spend weeks, perhaps months, counting all the ways the number thirteen is used in the Winchester mansion. As for me, I'll let the docents and the resident ghosts handle all the counting.

Did all these repetitions of thirteen help Sarah live a longer, safer life? Well, she had crippling arthritis, and modified her stairs and furniture so she wouldn't have to raise her legs so painfully high when moving about the house. In spite of her malady, she lived into her eighties, a hearty age for women in the last century.

What do you think? Is thirteen lucky or unlucky? For Sarah Winchester, thirteen may have been the one lucky thing in her life. At least she couldn't be accused of triskaidekaphobia.

Happy Friday the 13th, and may the best of luck be with you!

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Post by Suzanne Lilly
On Twitter as @suzannelilly