If your coffee is cold, you stub your toe or you get caught in the rain, you may want to check the date. Today is not your lucky day, or anyone’s. Friday the 13th is notoriously known as a day for all things unlucky, but where did this cursed day come from?
The phenomenon has become so widespread that a book, “Friday, the Thirteenth” by Thomas William Lawson, and a horror movie series, “Friday the 13th,” have been made about the topic.
The superstition even has several psychological phobias such as paraskavedekatriaphobia and friggatriskaidekaphobia, which are the fear of Friday the 13th, and triskaidekaphobia, which is the fear of the number 13 itself.
While the jury is still out on whether the legend holds any truth, there have been many unlucky occurrences on Friday the 13th since 1307. On Friday, Oct. 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France arrested and executed hundreds of Knights Templars.
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Since the execution of the Templars, Fridays that land on the 13th day have been associated with traumatic events such as the 1940 German bombing of Buckingham Palace, the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese and the 1970 Bangladesh cyclone that killed over 300,000 people.
Beyond Friday the 13th, the number 13 itself is also muddied in negative connotation.
While the number 12 is seen as complete for its relation to the 12 days of Christmas, 12 months in a year and 12 gods of Olympus, 13 stands out for its oddity.
The superstition surrounding the number 13 dates all the way back to the ancient Code of Hammurabi which reportedly omitted a 13th law from its list of legal rules, according to History.com. The skipped number has since been deemed as no more than a clerical error, but the legend lives on.
According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, hotels, hospitals and airports are known to avoid using the number 13 for rooms and gates. Some buildings will go as far as skipping the 13th floor all together.
Rather than avoiding it, some people face their fears head-on and choose to embrace the number 13, including past presidents Benjamin Harrison and Theodore Roosevelt.
The former presidents were once part of the Thirteen Club, an organization created by a New York man named Captain William Fowler which hosted a 13-course dinner on the 13th day of the month with 13 guests in room 13 of the Knickerbocker Cottage. All members were required to walk under a ladder before dinner.
Unlike other avoidable unlucky superstitions such as breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder, Friday the 13th is a universal day that everyone must face. Good thing the curse will only last for 24 hours.
Until Friday, Dec. 13...
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