English Version | Backstage: The Good Luck Issue

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(Un)Lucky 13

Did you know that there are airlines without the 13th row and hotels that skip the 13th floor altogether, going directly from the 12th to the 14th (according to Otis Elevator Co., for every building that maintains the 13th floor, there are another six that pretend not to have it - it’s not surprising, in the United States alone, 40 million inhabitants consider 13 an unlucky number)? This fear is nothing new (some even have a phobia - Triskaidekaphobia is the irrational fear of the number 13), but why is this pair of digits vilified? There are those who defend that it is a collateral damage of the 12, which represents fullness (the number of months in the year, gods of Olympus, signs of the Zodiac and apostles of Jesus). Thirteen was doomed to failure as it was his successor and unbalanced this sense of perfection. On the other hand, several references in history place the 13 as a synonym for bad luck, mainly with regard to dinner guests: in Norse mythology, the god Loki was the 13th to arrive at a feast in Valhalla, where he convinced another guest to murder the god Baldur; and Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to arrive at the Last Supper. And, of course, who can forget the infamous “Friday the 13th”, the horror movie with 12 installments? Of course, superstitions are sociocultural processes that, under the right conditions, can grow exponentially. Is this what happened to 7, nicknamed Lucky Number Seven? The answer is in The Token of Seven, on page 82.

Fortunate words

“Luck takes a lot of work”, says the popular saying, which summarizes much of what is believed about luck. Other thinkers were more eloquent in getting the message across about good fortune - or at least coining iconic phrases for all time. Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Shallow men believe in luck or circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect” (interestingly, we also talk about acts and consequences on page 74, in Karma Chameleon) and Thomas Jefferson confessed to be “a deep believer in luck, and I have found that the harder I work, the more I get it”, paraphrasing the opening expression of this paragraph. “Oh, I am fortune's fool”, laments Romeo, in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, a sensation, that of feeling like a plaything of luck, which can also translate into superstitions, such as those from designers in Stranger Things: Fashion Edition, on page 262, and gambling addiction, on The Wheel of Fortune, on page 242. Maybe that's why, in this sense of feeling lost within this idea of chance and randomness, we so often look for allies in talismans, which are throughout the issue, but particularly in the text In search of the lost amulet, on page 46.

Behind the scenes: “Sorte a nossa”

Lucky for us, in addition to the incredible images that spread over pages from 170 to 184, we have the behind the scenes at Vogue.pt. Just access through the QR Code just above these lines.

Translated from the original on The Good Luck Issue, published march 2023.Full stories and credits on the print issue.