Friday the 13th over the past has been considered by many as one of the unluckiest days of the year, and finally is here with us again.
The day is feared by by many and even the psychologists have even come up with a word for how you’re feeling – paraskavedekatriaphobia, or fear of Friday the 13th.
In 2017, there happen to be two Friday the 13ths – January 13 and October 13. One option is to stay tucked up in bed all day to avoid any potential Friday the 13th bad luck that may come your way, or alternatively, you could ignore the superstitious chatter and embrace it.
Fun facts to take your mind off it
Biblical origins
The superstition around this day is thought to have come about during the Middle Ages, and may have Biblical origins.
Some historians have claimed it was the day on which Eve bit the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, the great flood began and the builders of the Tower of Babel.
In the New Testament there were 13 people present for Jesus’s last supper on Maundy Thursday, the day before Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday.
Why is Friday 13th deemed unlucky?
The number 13 has been considered unlucky for many years, even before Christ. The number 12 is historically considered the number of completeness (12 months of the year, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 hours of the clock…) while its older cousin, 13, has been seen as an outlier.
There is also a biblical reference to 13 being considered unlucky. Judas, the apostle who later betrayed Jesus, was supposedly the 13th guest to sit down at the last supper. Christ was crucified on a Friday.
In the 14th Century Geoffrey Chaucer referenced Friday as being an unlucky day in his Canterbury Tales, “And on a Friday fell all this mischance”.
It is also possible that the publication in 1907 of Thomas W. Lawson’s popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth reinforced the superstition. In the novel, an unscrupulous stock broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.
In numerology 13 is considered to be an irregular number and is also the number of witches you need to form a coven.
The mythical family
In Somerset, it is said that whoever turns a bed on a Friday turns ships at sea.
In Cumbria, babies born on a Friday were laid on the family Bible.
In some areas, calling a doctor for the first time on a Friday is a certain omen of death.
Cutting hair and nails on a Friday is a certain path to misfortune, and many couples will refrain from marrying on a Friday.
Dr Caroline Watt of the University of Edinburgh says that it is the belief in the Friday 13th superstition that could, in fact, prove the greatest risk to the average person.
“If people believe in the superstition of Friday the 13th then they believe they are in greater danger on that day.
“As a result they may be more anxious and distracted and this could lead to accidents. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
“It is like telling someone they are cursed. If they believe they are then they will worry, their blood pressure will go up and they put themselves at risk.”
Cases of Omitted number 13
In many Western countries tall buildings are missing the 13th floor.
In China the fourth floor and in some cases all floors with the number four are left out of Chinese buildings.
Houses often do not have a number 13, and many hotels, including the Carlton in London, miss out a thirteenth floor.
It is considered very unlucky for thirteen people to dine together, and the first to rise will reach serious misfortune – a superstition upheld by US President Roosevelt. He also refused to travel on Friday the 13th.
Musicians avoid releasing album 13 instead do 14.
Freaky things that ever happened on this day
On Jan. 13, 1939, a bushfire tore through Australia’s Victoria province, killing 36 people in one day. This “Black Friday” fire was the deadly icing on top of a terrible fire season for the province. According to Australian Emergency Management, a total of 71 people died that January, and 75 percent of the state was affected by the flames.
July 13, 1951, was an extremely inauspicious day for northeastern Kansas. The rains had been coming down hard and heavy since July 9, bringing up to 16 inches (40 centimeters) of precipitation to the Kansas, Neosho, Verdigris and Marais Des Cygnes rivers. On that Friday the 13th, records were broken. In Topeka, the Kansas River rose to 40.8 feet (12.4 meters), which was 14.8 feet (4.5 m) above flood stage and 6 feet (1.8 m) higher than any flood ever measured to that date, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
One of New York’s most brutal and notorious murders occurred on Friday the 13th. On March 13, 1964, bar manager Kitty Genovese was stabbed and raped by a stranger, Winston Moseley. The attack took more than a half-hour, and an early New York Times article reported that 38 people witnessed the attack and failed to call the police. The tragic case became a staple in psychology classes as a way to illustrate the “bystander effect,” or “Kitty Genovese syndrome,” which occurs when people fail to act in a situation because they assume someone else will step in.
The deadliest tropical cyclone in history struck on Friday, Nov. 13, 1970, in Bangladesh. Making landfall that Thursday night, the Bhola cyclone killed at least 300,000 people, according to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
On Friday the 13th in October 1972, the Uruguayan Old Christians Club rugby team boarded a turboprop plane to travel to a match in Chile. They never made it. Because of a navigational error, the plane careened into an Andean mountain peak, crashing on a high-altitude snowfield.