Why Is Friday the 13th a Superstitious Date?

You probably answered this before, but I'm too lazy to search. With Friday the 13th coming up in May, can you give us the background on why it's a superstitious day and date?

We did answer this question, on Friday the 13th of November 2020. But for you and all QoDers who are either too lazy to look or don't know that we ran this a couple years ago, here it is again (slightly improved).

People who harbor a superstition about Friday the 13th might suffer from triskaidekaphobia, a fear of the number 13. More specifically, paraskavedekatriaphobia and friggatriskaidekaphobia refer to a fear of Friday the 13th itself.

In a fair amount of research on the subject, we were unable to come up with a definitive answer on where the idea that a Friday that falls on the 13th of the month is unlucky. We don't think it's known.

But we can say that Friday the 13th has a very long mythology of being considered unlucky.

As far as we can tell, the earliest "evidence" that 13 might be an unlucky number is considered to appear in the Code of Hammurabi, a set of 282 rules for commercial transactions and social interactions that date back to around 1750 BCE in ancient Babylonia. For some reason, the Code skipped over the number 13, to which some observers ascribe superstitious significance. One writer on the subject went so far as to claim that the omission of 13 happened on a Friday, but we suspect that's apocryphal, considering that the seven-day week and the names of the days didn't show up for another 2,000 or so years -- during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine around 320 CE.

Also contemporary to the Romans, the Bible recounts that there were 13 attendees at the Last Supper: Jesus and the 12 apostles. This number has long inspired a superstition that hosting 13 at a table is a bad omen. In addition, the Last Supper was held on Maundy Thursday; the next day, Good Friday, Jesus was crucified. That's why Friday has traditionally been regarded as a day of abstinence and penance by Christians.

Similarly, in a Norse myth, the trickster god Loki was the 13th guest at a banquet and apparently killed several of the others.

We also found some evidence from Biblical literalists that the entire episode in the Garden of Eden took place on the sixth day of creation (Friday). Thus, some believe that Eve ate the forbidden apple on a Friday.

One of the most prevalent and popular myths attempting to explain the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition stems from what happened on Friday the 13th in October 1307, when hundreds of Knights Templar, a Catholic military order, were arrested across France, charged with heresy, sacrilege, and Satanism, and ultimately burned at the stake.

Then in the late 1300s, in his Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote that it was bad luck to start a journey or a project on a Friday.

Another superstition about the number 13 comes from around the 16th century, when witches were all the rage in Europe. It was believed that a "coven," or a gathering of witches, consisted of 13 women.

A few centuries later during the highly superstitious Victorian era in the mid-1800s, someone somewhere put the two together, Friday and 13, and came up with the idea of a doubly unlucky day.

And that localizes paraskevidekatriaphobia as a primarily northern European and (by extension to the colonies) American and Canadian superstition.

In Latin countries, along with Greece, Tuesday is the "bad-omen" day; they consider it dominated by Ares, the god of war.

In China and Japan, April 4 (4/4) is the unluckiest day of the year; the Chinese word for "four" sounds a lot like the word for death.

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Comments

Kevin Lewis May-13-2022

It's not 12

Many cultures ancient and modern considered 12 to be a "perfect" number, as it's divisible by 1,2,3,4, and 6. If you have 12 of something you're dividing up, chances are it'll come out evenly, unless of course, you have five people, in which case you kill and eat the fifth guy. Having 13 of something sows discord--who gets the 13th shekel or loaf of bread?

The Babylonians based their numeric system on 60, an even more "perfect" number, divisible by 1,2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20, and 30. Somebody gave Hammurabi 61 figs and was immediately ordered to be torn apart by wolves. Let that be a lesson to you.

As far as Friday goes, of course, Christian mythology says that Jesus was whacked on a Friday, though recent research has found that it actually took place on Taco Tuesday.

VegasVic May-13-2022

Mitch Hedberg:

My hotel doesn't have a 13th Floor because of superstition, but c'mon man... People on the 14th floor, you know what floor you're really on.

"What room are you in?" 

"1401". 

"No, you're not. Jump out of window, you'll die earlier!"

Reno Faoro May-13-2022

13, friday

A-ROD , with help from PED'S (?), wore number 13 in MLB . Is that why JENNIFER LOPEZ 'said no and dumped him ' OR was it really lucky for him , that she is with BEN ?????

jay May-13-2022

Craps

Betting on 13 in Craps is really unlucky.....
- before you groan ... this is a Vegas forum after all.....

Ray May-13-2022

can't tell you.

If I told you why Friday the 13th was unlucky, AND I told it to ON a Friday the 13th, I would be cursed with bad luck forever. So, I'll tell you tomorrow, on Saturday the 14th.Trust me. It's luckier that way.

David May-13-2022

FRIDAY THE 13TH ARE LUCKY FOR ME !!!!

Thanks for explaining all the possible reasons why Friday the 13th is thought to be "unlucky" threw out the world very interesting. But to be truthful it's never been unlucky for me gambling on the slots here in Vegas. I honestly look forward to it as there has not been a Friday the 13th yet since 2014 that I haven't won at least one "hand pay" Jackpot on the slots. Maybe it's just my positive attitude that hey it's Friday "Anything can happen" !!!!!    Tell Anthony & Andrew my wife and I both loves there weekly LVA update videos on You Tube and no matter what keep doing them and promote them more so people know there available by maybe posting a link every week on the LVA home page ????  Keep up the great work LVA is the best in town !!!!!!!!

AL May-13-2022

Lucky or me too

Friday the 13th has also primarily been lucky for me. To be honest, many times, Friday the 13th has been neutral, but many times it has been a good day. Historically, I can only remember 1 time that a Friday the 13th was unlucky. I never really bought into the negative belief as a child, so I'm not speaking with lots of life experience as an adult when I say that I have no reason to be superstitious (negatively) about the day. I think it's psychologically natural to belief something negative like that if you've had several bad experiences on this date. But just as our results playing video poker will vary from person to person, in the manner of the bell curve, I similarly believe that some people just will be luckier than others on this date; some will get the short end of the stick with respect to their experiences on the date. But just as in VP, that doesn't mean that anything supernatural is going on. It could be simple bad luck. If you expect bad luck, that might make it happen.

Llew May-15-2022

Lucky/unlucky

My birthday is on the 13th (not born on Friday).  It’s not generally unlucky but I stopped gambling on my birthday, after having lost several years in a row. 😏
“In China and Japan, April 4 (4/4) is the unluckiest day of the year.”  That’s my ex’s birthday. Sure was unlucky for me.  😄

Question of the Day - 13 May 2022

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