The Chinese have named dangerous feng shui numbers

The endured pandemic and its endless echoes, gloomy forecasts for the coming year by a number of esoteric “prophets” all over the planet, coupled with a difficult geopolitical situation, have given rise to a new epidemic in humanity – superstition. And the earthquake in Turkey, which claimed a huge number of lives in a matter of hours, exacerbated the fears of those who are often on the road – business travelers and tourists. What are the signs, good and bad, that travelers believe in?

“At the end of January, my husband and I were vacationing in Thailand,” says Natalya, a Muscovite, “the Chinese New Year has just begun. And everywhere in the hotel there were translations of feng shui predictions of some local guru, translated into Russian. Among other things, it said that it was dangerous to fly in an airplane during the first month of the Lunar New Year.

Natalya and her husband were amazed at how carefully fellow citizens study the advice of an unknown Feng Shuist, and forgot about them. But I had to remember – on the way back.

– There is vanity and hustle in the plane, – the tourist shares, – the passengers cannot sit down in any way. And here a married couple is desperately trying to change places with others, they even offer to pay extra. A man shoves a bottle of duty-free to one of the passengers – I give it, they say, just sit in my place. Those who were offered to change, at first, like us, did not understand what was the matter. Until someone said that the Feng Shui prediction indicated the “fatal four numbers” that are dangerous in the coming year – these are 13, 17, 4 and 14. And some joker immediately blurted out that falling – so with the whole plane, what’s the difference in which row. And such a hubbub arose: some laugh, others shout that they should not be nervous, but our couple rested – they would not sit on the “fatal tsifir”, and that’s it. They just flew away.

– And how did you solve the problem?

– In the end, passengers switched places with the superstitious, realizing that a delay in departure would bring more problems than 13th place.

Russians who rent out their property in Turkey have also suffered from superstition. Several apartment owners immediately shared that the tenants moved out without explanation from the 13th, 17th and 4th floors, as well as from apartments under these numbers and having the number “4” in their composition – 14, 24 and so on. The residents, according to the owners, were mostly relocators from the Russian Federation. But such denseness, as the study of the issue shows, is not only a domestic phenomenon: the epidemic of “digitophobia” has captured the whole world.

“Even before the pandemic and other natural and geopolitical troubles, digitalophobia was suffered in the United States and China, and in most other countries, superstitions began to spread virally right now,” says social psychologist Mark Lozovsky. – According to a European study, today the 13th row of seats has been abolished in the liners of the national air carriers of Spain, France, Ireland and Germany.

And the Germans, although it would seem that this is a practical nation, also do not have the 17th row. Although, perhaps, this is pragmatism: the airline understands that tickets for rows and seats with these numbers will not be sold out.

The European air carriers themselves assure that they have nothing to do with it, just the planes were made in the USA, and there is such a “manufacturing tradition”. Although there are 13th row and 13th places in the Boeings of Russian airlines. And only in Germany they admit that they avoid the numbers 13 and 17 in liners operating international flights, deliberately – “out of respect for the possible superstitions of foreign passengers.”

According to experts studying the unprecedented spread of the “digitophobia virus”, today the United States and China are still leading in superstition, although their followers are now increasing every day. In the States, most high-rise buildings, including hotels, business centers and residential buildings, do not have a 13th floor. In New York, for example, the “unlucky” number of floors, offices and apartments is “missing” in 91% of buildings: the elevator from the 12th floor goes straight to the 14th, and the doors with the sign 13 simply do not exist – all the same, superstitious Americans do not want to live and work there. Most American airlines also abolished the 13th and 17th rows, as well as the seats under these numbers, a long time ago. And now it is abolishing everything containing the number “4” – in order to attract Chinese tourists. The same is done by US hotels oriented towards guests from China.

In China, in most buildings and transport there are no numbers containing a four. For example, in Chinese planes and cruise ships, not only are there no 4th row and 4th deck, seats and cabins under this number, but also 14th, 24th and so on. In hotels in China, there is no 4th floor: after the 3rd there is immediately the 5th, and there are also no 4, 14, 24 and other rooms with a four. On the even side of the streets there are no houses at number 4, and the “fatal” figure for the Chinese is not included in car numbers. And in the Chinese hospital at number 4, no one wanted to be treated until it was renamed the fifth. What is the horror of the “sinister four numbers” 13, 17, 4 and 14?

– In most Western cultures, the number 13 has long been feared because of biblical associations (Juda, who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th participant in the Last Supper), explains religious ethnographer Ilya Weiss. – And the number 17 sounds ominous for lovers of Latin and anagrams (reverse permutation of letters or numbers): in Roman terms it is XVII, and in the anagram VIXI, which in Latin means “life is over.” And in Chinese, the word “death” is consonant with the pronunciation of the number “4”, hence the national theraphobia – the fear of the four. And at the same time, all numbers with a four in the composition, except for 48: the pronunciation of this number sounds like “death money”, which in an allegorical sense for native Chinese speakers means “fabulous wealth”. That is why the practical Chinese do not exclude this figure from everyday life.

Emergency risk experts also advise travelers to pay attention to the numbers, but not for the sake of superstition. According to fire safety specialists, for example, the best choice of floor in a hotel is the third, since in most buildings fire escapes do not lead higher than the 4th. This choice is also supported by law enforcement officers and rescuers: on floors 1-2, the risk of intruders from outside is higher, and from higher floors it is more difficult to evacuate people in case of unforeseen circumstances.