Setting: A cozy café in Aarhus, Denmark. The smell of fresh pastries fills the air. Emma and Lukas, longtime friends in their 30s, are sipping coffee by the window as a light snow begins to fall.
Emma: (suddenly knocks under the wooden table three times) 7-9-13.
Lukas: (raises an eyebrow) There it is again. I can’t even say “Let’s hope the trains aren’t delayed” without you summoning the ancient spirits of IKEA.
Emma: It’s not spirits! It’s just—you know—warding off bad luck. You tempted fate with that sentence, Lukas. I’m not taking chances.
Lukas: But how does knocking on wood and muttering numbers prevent anything? Do train delays cower at the sound of you whispering “syv-ni-tretten”?
Emma: I don’t know how it works. I just know that every time I don’t do it, something goes wrong. Like last week—I mentioned I hoped my job interview went well, didn’t knock or say anything—and boom, my bike tire popped on the way there. Missed the whole thing!
Lukas: That’s correlation, not causation. You didn’t get a flat tire because you skipped the 7-9-13. You probably just hadn’t checked the air pressure in weeks.
Emma: Still. It was the one time I skipped it! That can’t be a coincidence.
Lukas: Okay, but think of it this way: if I said, “Every time I wear my green socks, my team wins,” you’d laugh. But if I keep noticing that pattern, it feels true—even if the socks aren’t magical.
Emma: But 7-9-13 is cultural. It’s part of being Danish! It’s not just about me—it’s tradition. My grandmother did it, and she swore it saved her life during a lightning storm in Skagen.
Lukas: What, the lightning saw her knock under a table and decided to strike someone else?
Emma: (laughs) Okay, when you say it like that, it does sound ridiculous. But it gives me comfort. It’s like a mental seatbelt.
Lukas: I get that. Rituals can be comforting. I just think it’s dangerous when people believe they prevent bad things. Like… imagine skipping a vaccination because you think knocking on wood is enough protection.
Emma: I’m not that extreme! I’m not anti-science. I get my flu shots. I just like a little cosmic insurance on the side.
Lukas: So you trust medicine and the wood gods. Got it.
Emma: Honestly, yeah. What’s the harm?
Lukas: Well, I think it gets tricky when we start crediting luck for real-life efforts. Like, when you passed your driving test, was it the knocking—or the fact you practiced parallel parking every day for two weeks?
Emma: Both. It’s a team effort. Me and the universe.
Lukas: You know what? I’ll make a deal with you. Next time you’re about to 7-9-13, stop, take a breath, and ask: “What can I control in this situation?” And I promise not to roll my eyes too hard when you knock under the table anyway.
Emma: Hmm. Deal. But if something goes wrong, I’m blaming you—and I will knock twice as hard next time.
Lukas: Fair. Just don’t knock at IKEA. The tables aren’t even real wood.
Emma: (gasps) That’s probably why my new apartment feels cursed!
Lukas: You’re hopeless.
Emma: And lucky.
Science Vs Superstition 
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