Today is Friday the 13th!
A day that has been long associated with bad luck and superstition. For some people today is the creepiest day on the calendar.
Well, whether you believe in bad luck or not, there have been lots of superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th. Even the number 13 itself has always been associated with bad luck since the dawn of time. As irrational as it may appear, superstitions can sometimes add meaning to unexplainable mysterious happenings around us. Though this is not intended to encourage superstition, the point here is to draw attention to the beliefs around us, however, Friday the 13th has traditionally been regarded as an eventful or unlucky day in Western mythology.
The real Friday the 13th panic started in the 20th century. Many attribute the day to Thomas Lawson’s novel “Friday, the Thirteenth,” in which a stockbroker purposely crashes the stock market on this day. Even the New York Times was among the first media outlets to highlight the superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th a year later, in 1908.
Then came creepy horror films like the “Friday the 13th” franchise, however, the success of this later in the 1980s contributed to the cultural phenomenon behind this day.
Over the years, Friday the 13th, the unlucky day has always been cemented in pop culture and the hearts of horror fans. On the other hand, the connection between the 13th and Friday bringing misfortune still needs to be made more evident. Its popularity is often associated with its use in literary works.
While no historical evidence supports the superstition, folklore historian Donald Dossey believes it is rooted in Norse Mythology, while others associate it with Jesus Christ’s Last Supper. The number 13th person at the table was Judas, who betrayed Jesus.
Some unsettling events that occurred on Friday the 13th include March 13, 2020, which could be considered the first official day of the pandemic, various planes disappearing and crashing on this day, the bombing of Buckingham Palace during WWII, and the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. In addition, the largest passenger ship ever wrecked, the Costa Concordia, sank into the ocean. Kansas experienced record-breaking amounts of rain and flooding. The Bhola cyclone killed more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh, bushfires in Australia, and Buffalo, New York, was hit by a freak blizzard, to name a few.
This day is so popular that there’s a phobia associated with it, the fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Those afraid of Friday the 13th will face it at least three times a year.
