LONG considered the harbinger of bad luck, this week there’s a Friday the 13th – the first of two in 2023 – where many Westerners will avoid walking under ladders, crossing paths with black cats or put off making big decisions for fear of this apparently doomed date.
We can’t be certain exactly when or where this superstition began, though negative feelings have centred around the number 13 for centuries, and that becomes a double whammy when Fridays are thrown into the equation.
James Iles takes a look at the history and possible origins of this ominous occasion and wonders why we worry so much about this dreaded day.
IS Friday 13th a date under the duvet for you? Will you be avoiding cracks in the pavement and putting off air travel? Maybe this is why…
Western societies have long associated the number 12 with the feeling of completeness – there are 12 days of Christmas, 12 months, 12 zodiac signs and 12 Gods of Olympus, but once we get to 13 opinions alter dramatically.
Black cats can divide opinions on the superstitions front.According to folklore historian Donald Dossey, the unlucky nature of the number 13 originated with a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party in Valhalla.
But when the trickster god Loki, who was not invited, arrived as the 13th guest, he arranged for Balder to be shot with a mistletoe-tipped arrow.
Dossey states that when Balder died, the whole Earth went dark and mourned, making a terribly unlucky day and it was this major event in Norse mythology that caused the number 13 to be considered unlucky.
In Christianity though, there are multiple associations of bad luck with the number 13, especially when coincided with a Friday.
The story of Jesus’ last supper and crucifixion in which there were 12 apostles and Jesus present, he was the 13th guest on the night before his death on what became Good Friday when he was crucified.
Leonardo Da Vinci famously captured the scene of the seating arrangement at the Last Supper which is believed to have given rise to a long-standing Christian superstition that having 13 guests at a table was a bad omen. Worse, they believe to do so is courting death.
Friday was also said to be the day Eve gave Adam the fateful apple from the Tree of Knowledge in the Bible, as well as the day Cain killed his brother, Abel.
There are also theories the unlucky date stems back to Friday 13th 1307, when Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of the Knights Templar.
Dan Brown’s popular 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code cites this incident, as does 1955 book The Iron King by Maurice Druon.
Thomas W Lawson’s 1907 novel Friday, the Thirteenth, undoubtedly helped to cement the superstition in modern times.
In it a banker plays up to the fears of investors by stirring up a panic on Wall Street on the dreaded date.
More recently of course, the successful horror film franchise Friday 13th (ironically there are still only 12 in total) has cashed in our fears, with fictional character Jason Voorhees as the cursed slasher thought to have drowned at Camp Crystal Lake as a boy before returning time and again to unleash mass murder on his unlucky victims.
There are many factual accounts of there being a significantly increased chance of being involved in a road traffic accident on this dreaded date but data sources supporting it are hotly disputed.
One thing we can be sure of is Friday 13th is just a date, just another 24 hours, just another cross on the calendar isn’t it?
Pass me a four-leaf clover please.
Friday 13th facts
- The irrational fear of the number 13 is called “triskaidekaphobia
- This year there are two Friday the 13ths (January and October)
- Friday 13th happens at least once every year but can occur up to three times in the same year
- Friday the 13th occurs in any month that begins on a Sunday
Though statistically the safest form of travel, many will avoid taking a flight on Friday 13th.
