The Queen won't let 13 guests sit down for dinner, reveals royal expert
The Queen won’t let a group of 13 people eat together at her dinner table, it has been revealed.
So, if you’re expecting an invite for an evening meal with Her Majesty, you had better hope you’re not thirteenth on the list.
The 93-year-old monarch has a rule in place when she puts together her dinner party invite list that states a formal dinner must have less or more than this number, according to royal commentator Paul Dampier.
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“She won’t let 13 people sit down at a dinner table, not because she is superstitious but in case guests are,” he told Fabulous Digital.
The number 13 has a long history of being considered unlucky, for numerous reasons. Some believe it’s unlucky because at Jesus Christ’s last supper, there were 13 people, and one of that number, Judas Iscariot, betrayed Christ.
It also had unlucky connotations within other cultures, such as the ancient Mayans who associated the number 13 with the apocalypse.
There’s also a recognised phobia of the number 13, known as triskaidekaphobia.
A superstition surrounding the number 13 still prevails in other areas too. For instance, one in three homeowners say they would be less likely to buy a house if it were at number 13, according to Zoopla.
However, once the final number of diners has been sorted, guests visiting Buckingham Palace can expect a lavish feast.
Earlier this year, the Queen hosted the Trump family for a state dinner together with more than a dozen members of the Royal Family and 170 other guests.
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The party was served a starter consisting of a steamed fillet of halibut with watercress mousse, asparagus spears and chervil sauce.
This was followed by saddle of new season Windsor lamb, with herb stuffing, spring vegetables and port sauce. Dessert was a strawberry sable with lemon verbena cream – made of crisp biscuits, smooth pastry cream and fresh strawberries – followed by coffee and petit fours.
