Not walking under ladders and avoiding black cats are just some of the superstitions people partake in to keep luck on their side on Friday 13th.
Many believe that good fortune will evade them as the day has long been associated with incidents of misfortune.
But why exactly is Friday 13th associated with bad luck and misfortune?
Read on below for everything you need to know about the supposed bad luck many people associate with the day.
The 1980 film Friday The 13th provided widespread of the date and the associated superstition
Why is Friday 13th ‘bad luck’?
The association with bad luck starts with the number 13 by itself. In Abrahamic religions, 12 is seen as a number representing perfection and completion; there are 12 disciples of Jesus Christ, Abraham has 12 sons, there are 12 tribes of Israel.
The number 13 is therefore symbolically considered imperfect. At the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot, Christ’s betrayer, was the 13th guest.
The concept of a 13th guest being associated with evil or treachery extends beyond Christianity, with Norse mythology also featuring a similar story. At a Valhalla dinner for the god Baldur, Loki arrived as the 13th guest and murdered the god.
The association between Friday and the number 13 can also be dated back to Christian lore, with Judas Iscariot being the 13th guest and betraying Christ on Maundy Thursday leading to his execution on Good Friday.
These ideas percolated for hundreds of years, growing stronger and more influential in the Dark Ages with exaggerated accounts of how the French King Philip IV arrested some Knights Templar on Friday 13th in 1307.
Not walking under ladders and avoiding black cats are just some of the superstitions people partake in to keep luck on their side on Friday 13th. Pictured: Two men test gas pressure in street lighting, Westminster, London, 1910
In the 19th Century, the myth appeared to be popular enough to inspire a counter-movement. The Thirteen Club was formed in late 19th century to reject the superstition.
Founded by Civil War soldier Captain William Fowler, the first meeting of the Thirteen Club was on Friday, January 13, at 8.13pm in room 13 of the Knickerbocker Cottage on Sixth Avenue and 28th. There appeared to be no availability on 13th Street.
However, the myth of Friday 13th really crystallises during the 20th Century, when direct connections between the date and misfortune begin to be paved.
In 1907, the businessman Thomas W. Lawson published a novel called Friday, the Thirteenth, in which a young stockbroker decides to wreak financial havoc on Wall Street on that day.
News site Vox says that the first known mention of Friday 13th in media came on March 14, 1908. A notice in the New York Times describes one senator’s bill makes it into the Senate on the day: ‘Friday the 13th holds no terrors for Senator Owen,’ the notice read.
Cut to 1980 and Paramount Pictures’ slasher film Friday The 13th comes out to consolidate the myth and add a strong horror element to it.
Read Related Also: Sunday Smiles
The film franchise’s villain, Jason Voorhees, was born on a Friday 13th and the key murders at the start of the first film happen on Friday 13th.
However, we’re just one film short of the franchise living up to its name as there are only 12 Friday The 13 films as of July 2018.
The superstition has unsurprisingly had some very real-life effects. Thomas W Lawson may have been delighted to hear that financial markets and companies occasionally have moments of panic on Friday 13th.
On Friday July 13, 2012, China’s GDP dropped by 7.6 percent. In 1989, Friday, October 13 had become known as Black Friday after a United Airlines buyout deal failed and sent global markets plunging.
According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in North Carolina, companies lose nearly $1 billion when the 13th of a month is a Friday. Travel site Kayak said that Friday, June 13, 2014 was the cheapest day to fly that year.
How often does Friday 13th occur?
There are usually two Friday 13th days every year. Today’s Friday, October 13 is the second of 2023, with the first coming back in January.
This will be the final Friday 13th of the year, with the date occurring again in September and December 2024.
American rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting on Friday, September 13, 1996
Famous Friday 13th events in history
In 1307, King Philip IV of France arrested some Knights Templar on a Friday 13th.
Buckingham Palace was bombed by the Germans during WWII in 1940 in September.
Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York in March 1965; her death lead to the coining of the ‘bystander effect’ term.
The rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in September 1996.
What is Triskaidekaphobia?
Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13.
However, there is a specific term for the fear of Friday 13th: Friggatriskaidekaphobia, also sometimes referred to as paraskevidekatriaphobia.
The first term refers to the Queen of the Norse gods, Frigga, who was also the mother of Baldur.
