What is the exact importance of the number 12? It pops up in several places in history and religion and culture. 12 children of Jacob, 12 students of Jesus, 12 months a year, 12 hour a year...
So what is it that joins all these people together? Where does the number 12 come from?
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It is far from my area of expertise, but I've heard two sorts of explanations that sound reasonable.
12 can easily be divided into whole numbers by 2, 3, 4 and 6. That makes a dozen more practical in many circumstances where more arithmetic operations are not needed.
12 is also a largest number you can count on fingers of one hand - count finger segments with you thumb. Also, if you than keep track of dozens with fingers of your other hand you get 5x12 or 60.
Months of the year: you can choose 12 or 13. It's a "moonth" and lunar calendars usually had 13. When someone realized this doesn't line up with the solar year that determines things like planting crops, the solar calendars usually went to twelve months.
Most of the rest comes from the Sumerian fascination with 12 and 60. They gave us the minutes, hours, houses of the zodiac, 360 degrees in a circle. They seem to have passsed this via other cultures all the way across Asia, where there are twelve sacred animals of the zodiac, despite most of their philosophy being tied to five elements.