On this day in history, we're exploring the ever present, and very real, fear of the number 13, and the origin surrounding the superstition of Friday the 13th.
As many as 21 million Americans suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia (also known as paraskevidekatriaphobia), named after Frigga, the Norse goddess that translates to Friday in English. Very little is known about the origins of Friday the 13th, but some historians believe it arose around the late 19th century. The first documented mention of the day is found in the biography of an Italian composer, Gioachino Rossini, who passed away on Friday the 13th. A 1907 book, Friday the Thirteenth, also perpetuates the superstition.
Other origins may have been biblical — related to an idea that at the Last Supper, Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table — or the fact that the earliest reference to thirteen being unlucky or evil is in the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, where the thirteenth law is said to be omitted.
Interestingly enough, numerologists believe there is a concrete reason why there is such a big superstition surrounding the date. That may be because the number 13 arrives in a numerical sequence after the “complete” number 12. There are twelve months in the year, twelve inches in a foot, and twelve hours on the face of an analog clock. Thomas Fernsler, an associate policy scientist in the Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center at the University of Delaware, told National Geographicthat the number 13’s unluckiness most likely “has to do with [13] just being a little beyond completeness.”
No matter the origin, friggatriskaidekaphobia is a very real phobia, and one that affects many people each year. This dread may be warranted, though. Historically, a LOT of unlucky things have happened on Friday the 13th’s. It was Friday the 13th in October when the historic “black friday” stock market crash occurred, when the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 fell from the sky, killing 12 people, and when Jason Voorhees murdered campers at Camp Crystal Lake. Okay, that last one is a fictional story, but it really helped spread the fear of the date.
So, whether you by into the superstition or not, we suggest you throw some salt over your shoulder, watch out for ladders, and avoid the Clock Tower at all costs.
PS — On Friday, April the 13th, 2029, an asteroid will safely fly past the earth. When 99942 Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was thought to have a small chance of colliding with Earth. But you can rest easy because since then, scientists have revised their findings which show that there is absolutely no risk of the asteroid impacting the Earth or the Moon.