Why Friday the thirteenth is so unfortunate

That is proper, tomorrow is Friday 13, a day lengthy related to dangerous luck and superstition, and maybe second solely within the spooky states after Halloween.

Usually fodder for horror movies (there are a formidable 12 slasher motion pictures within the Friday the thirteenth franchise), the day is riddled with creepy goings-on and superstitious behaviour.

But it is not simply the stuff of Hollywood legend — lodges have typically gone to nice lengths to take away “room 13s”, whereas many tall buildings lack a thirteenth ground and a few planes do not have a row 13.

However the place does our superstition round this explicit date, referred to as paraskevidekatriaphobia, come from? And why are we so afraid of the quantity 13?

This is all you have to know.

The place did the Friday the thirteenth superstition come from?

The worry of Friday the thirteenth is so widespread that it’s even cheaper to journey by aircraft on the date. However the superstition, discovered principally in Western tradition, has been round since lengthy earlier than air journey was invented.

13 is arguably probably the most vilified quantity, and has numerous malevolent origins. Probably the most infamous look of the quantity 13 comes from the Bible. Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is assumed to have been the thirteenth visitor to sit down all the way down to the Final Supper. In Norse mythology, a cocktail party of the gods was ruined by the thirteenth visitor known as Loki, who brought about the world to be plunged into darkness.

Friday doesn’t have a very good status both. Good Friday was the day of Jesus’s crucifixion and, within the UK, Friday was as soon as referred to as Hangman’s Day as a result of it was often when individuals who had been condemned to loss of life had been hanged.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s well-known Canterbury Tales, written within the 14th century, he says “and on a Friday fell all this mischance”.

So why Friday the thirteenth?

Based on folklorists, the mix of Friday and the quantity 13 as a day of notably dangerous luck appears to be a comparatively current custom – maybe solely about 100 years outdated.

A potential origin of the superstition may be traced to the publication of Thomas W Lawson’s novel Friday, The Thirteenth in 1907, by which a dealer takes benefit of the superstition to create a panic on Wall Road.

Some of the popularised myths making an attempt to clarify the origin of the Friday 13 superstition stems from occasions on Friday, October 13, 1307, when tons of of Knights Templar had been arrested and burned throughout France.

Many have linked the Knights Templar to the Holy Grail, and their brutal demise has typically been utilized in twentieth century literature, resembling Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

The Eccentric Membership, one in every of London’s oldest gentleman’s golf equipment, has held particular Friday the thirteenth dinners for the reason that 18th century, seating 13 individuals at a dinner desk surrounded by “unfortunate” objects.

Is there any proof that it’s unfortunate?

In 1993, a British Medical Journal examine claimed there was a “important” enhance in incidents on Friday the thirteenth, however the writer of the examine later confessed it was “a little bit of enjoyable” as conventional within the Christmas version.

There’s anecdotal proof that unfortunate issues will occur on Friday the thirteenth, nevertheless. In 1976, New Yorker Daz Baxter was apparently so afraid of Friday the thirteenth that he determined the most secure place to remain was his mattress.

Mr Baxter was killed when the ground of his condo block collapsed that day.

Nearer to house, in 2009, the £13.5 million SAW experience at Thorpe Park had its opening premiere on Friday thirteenth, solely to be shut down as a consequence of a computer-programming fault.

Whereas in 2010, lightning struck a 13-year-old Suffolk boy on Friday thirteenth at 13:13.

How typically does Friday the thirteenth occur?

No less than every year, and as much as 3 times a yr. There was only one Friday the thirteenth in 2022.

In 2023, the date happens twice — in January and October.

Spooky stuff. However, for many Brits, Friday the thirteenth will likely be simply one other day.

Or will it..?