13 - The Holy Number

• •  In many cultures 13 is a holy number.
    13 is the center of a circle of 12.
  • Jesus, as the 13th, has 12 disciples around him.
    
  • The Last Supper: At Jesus Christ's last supper, there were thirteen people around the table, counting Christ and the twelve apostles. Some believe this is unlucky because one of those thirteen, Judas Iscariot, was the betrayer of Jesus Christ. From the 1890s, a number of English language sources relate the "unlucky" thirteen to an idea that at the Last Supper, Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table.
  • Full Moons: A year with 13 full moons instead of 12 posed problems for the monks in charge of the calendars. "This was considered a very unfortunate circumstance, especially by the monks who had charge of the calendar of thirteen months for that year, and it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals. For this reason thirteen came to be considered an unlucky number." However, a typical century has about 37 years that have 13 full moons, compared to 63 years with 12 full moons, and typically every third or fourth year has 13 full moons.
  • A Repressed Lunar Cult: In ancient cultures, the number 13 represented femininity, because it corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days). The theory is that, as the solar calendar triumphed over the lunar, the number thirteen became anathema
  • In Judaism, thirteen signifies the age at which a boy matures and becomes a Bar Mitzvah, i.e., a full member of the Jewish faith (is qualified to be counted as a member of Minyan).
  • The number of principles of Jewish faith according to Maimonides.
  • According to Rabbinic commentary on the Torah, God has 13 Attributes of Mercy.
  • This is the age whereby a preteen becomes an adolescent in Germanic languages, due to the suffix form beginning at this point (11 & 12 are nonstandard).
  • This is also the age in the US when a person can watch, rent, or buy a PG-13 film without parental guidance.
  • Thirteen is the minimum age of consent in Argentina, Burkina Faso, Japan, Niger, and two Mexican states.
  • On YouTube and many other social media sites, thirteen is the standard minimum age to be allowed to create an account.
  • Colgate University also considers 13 a lucky number. They were founded in 1819 by 13 men with 13 dollars, 13 prayers and 13 articles.^[20] (To this day, members of the Colgate community consider the number 13 a good omen.) In fact, the campus address is 13 Oak Drive in Hamilton, New York, and the male a cappella group is called the Colgate 13.
  • In the Mayan Tzolk'in calendar, trecenas mark cycles of 13-day periods. The pyramids are also set up in 9 steps divided into 7 days and 6 nights, 13 days total.
  • In the standard 52-card deck of playing cards there are four suits, each of 13 ranks.
  -Wikipedia-
  
  • Some turtles have 13 large areas surrounded by 28 smaller areas on their back.