Friday the 13th

Origins of the Superstition

Unlucky Friday

• Garden of Eden, Tower of Babel, Flood, Solomon’s Temple destroyed, & Crucifiction

• Pagan Rome—Execution Day• (Later) Britain—Hangman’s Day• Pagan/Pre-Christian Sabbath (so unholy unlucky, like

trips, & enemies tied to witchcraft: “Witches’ Sabbath”)• Black Friday, stock market crashes (1800s on)• Unlucky to start trip, begin new projects

Friday Legends

Unlucky #13

• #12 completeness• #13 irregular, transgressing completeness• Egyptian beliefs in stages of life/death• Last Supper• Primitive man, counting• Patriarchal culture villifying women• Hindus at dinner/Vikings at dinner

#13 Legends

Other Days

• Tuesday the 13th, Spanish cultures• Tuesdays, Greek• Fridays, Indonesian (Java)

13 as Lucky

• Chinese culture• (Egyptian culture, during the pharoahs)

Frigg/Freya: Friday & 13—from lucky to unlucky

DaVinci Code/Knights Templar

Combination

• Origin unclear & relatively modern (1900s)• Might just be unlucky Friday & unlucky 13 = more

unlucky day• Popularity from book, Friday the 13th (stockbroker’s

crash)

Phobia of Friday the 13th

• “friggatriskaidekaphobia”• “frigga” (Frigga goddess/Friday) + “triskaidekaphobia”

(fear of #13)

• Or “paraskevidekatriaphobia”• “para” (Gr. Friday) + “dekatreis” (thirteen) +• “phobia” (fear of)

Is it unlucky?Netherlands vs. England: different findings

America’s biggest superstition?