Why Italy

Why is 17 considered a lucky number in Italian Culture?

Public Comments

1. bc they love me
2. it is?
3. It is not. It is actually considered the most unlucky number. All kids touch wood (although in Italy they touch iron) when they have an exam on friday the 17th! Also, the (horrible) film "Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th" was translated as "Are you busy on Friday the 17th?" According to the Italian wikipedia, 17 is considered unlucky because of biblical reasons (the flood is supposed to have started on the 17th); a similar reason explains the prejudice on Friday (apparently Jesus died on a Friday). A possibly apocryphal explanation is related to the fact that the Romans used to write the word VIXI (=I lived in Latin, as in "now I'm dead") over tombs. Apparently in Medieval times the ignorant population confused the word VIXI and the Roman number XVII (=17), and thought it unlucky because it was always a marker of tombstones.