We’re back with another edition of Urban Legend: Fact or Fiction. In this chapter, we are going to discuss the origins of Friday the 13th and find out if it’s really unlucky.
Origins
As luck would have it, the origins of the supposedly cursed Friday the 13th start out murky. Since it’s composed of two historically unlucky things in western society, the day Friday and the number 13. So to get a full picture we have to dissect each component individually before we bring them back together.
Friday
You’d think with Friday being right before the weekend for most people would make it one of the most beloved days of the week. It’s not like Robert Smith wrote “It’s Tuesday, I’m in love.” But in Christianity it is considered a day to be feared.
Friday is believed to be the day that Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge, when Cain murdered Abel; when the Temple of Solomon was destroyed, and when Noah’s ark set sail due to the Great Flood. Jesus Christ was also crucified on it, hence the observance of Good Friday which somewhat breaks from this tradition. (While it may be considered a good day for Christians now, it certainly wasn’t pleasant for Jesus.)
In Britain, Friday takes on a sinister tradition as well. It was known as Hangman’s Day because it’s usually when death sentences were carried out on the gallows.
“Fridays were considered unlucky days, and that’s been true since the Middle Ages in the English speaking world and probably through most of Europe, because Friday was the day of crucifixion. And in the old Catholic tradition, every Friday was a day of penance. And that idea has persisted,” said Moira Marsh, a folklore librarian at the University of Indiana Bloomington.
The Number 13
The number 13 being considered unlucky also dates back to religion and dinner parties. In Christianity, Judas, who betrayed Jesus, was the 13 guest at the Last Supper. In Norse mythology, Loki showing up as the 13th guest to a dinner party of the gods, caused the world to plunge into darkness.
13’s bad reputation may be due in part to following the number 12. Many view 12 as a round number that completes many important things. There are 12 months in a year, 12 zodiac signs, 12 inches in a foot, 12 pairs of ribs in the human body, 12 days of Christmas, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 gods of Olympus, and 12 tribes of Israel. Not to mention 12 being an even number means that it can create symmetry. Whereas 13 doesn’t have the same balance and can feel disorienting coming after a “cleaner” feeling number.
“So 13 is associated with that terrible event. And Friday, the 13th you get a double whammy,” explains Dr. Phil Stevens, retired anthropology professor from the University at Buffalo and author of “Rethinking the Anthropology of Magic and Witchcraft: Inherently Human.” “You get both of these elements coming together: the taboo against 13, and the crucifixion, which was on a Friday.”
Pop Culture
Mashing the two together seems to be an advent of pop culture. The first reference we could find for Friday the 13th being unlucky comes from the 1834 play “Les Finesses des Gribouilles.” A character states; “I was born on a Friday, December 13th, 1813 from which come all of my misfortunes.”
The French literary magazine Revue de Paris, contained a piece by Marquis de Salvo about a father who killed his daughter on Friday the 13th. “It is always Fridays and the number thirteen that bring back luck,” he wrote (via NPR).
In 1907, we get the novel “Friday, the Thirteenth” by Thomas William Lawson. It tells the story of a New York City stockbroker who uses superstitions to create chaos on Wall Street. All so they can make bank on the market in all the comotion.
In 1980, we got the most iconic of all the media based on the day, “Friday the 13th.” A film that would go on to birth the hockey-masked slasher Jason Voorhees. A killer that now stars in comic books, novellas, video games, and is a fan favorite Halloween costume.
Is Friday The 13th Really Unlucky?
If Friday the 13th is unlucky or not depends on you dear reader. If a day, number, time, etc. is bad depends on how your perception of it affects your behavior.
“No data exists, and will never exist, to confirm that the number 13 is an unlucky number,” says Igor Radun of the Human Factors and Safety Behavior Group at the University of Helsinki’s Institute of Behavioural Sciences in Finland. “There is no reason to believe that any number would be lucky or unlucky.” Radun also co-authored the 2004 study “Females Do Not Have More Injury Road Accidents on Friday the 13th.”
Some may point out there was a study published in 1993 in the British Medical Journal, that showed that car accidents increased by up to 52% on the 13th. The study reportedly analyzed the traffic flow and number of injuries from car accidents on the southern section of London’s M25 motorway, for a five month period on Friday the 13ths between 1990 and 1992. They put this up against data from Friday the 6ths in the same months. Researchers noted there were less cars on the road, but “the risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent” on the 13th.
The issue is this study is a joke. That’s not us editorializing, it’s literally a joke.
Yup, A Joke
“It’s quite amusing and written with tongue firmly in cheek,” said Robert Luben, a researcher at the school of clinical medicine at the University of Cambridge and one of the authors of the study. “It was written for the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal, which usually carries fun or spoof articles.”
“(Some people) clearly didn’t understand that the paper was just a bit of fun and not to be taken seriously,” he explains. “Many also assumed that the authors were ‘believers.’ I’m sure that most of these people hadn’t read the paper, which suggests that people being superstitious affects their behavior.”
“Unfortunately, most of studies dealing with Friday the 13th and the number 13 are solely focused on statistical data, such as accident data, stock exchange data, etc., without any attempt to establish a ‘direct’ relationship between belief, or superstition, and behavior,” says Radun. “Therefore, it is not surprising that contradictory results may occur … In our study, we did not find that either women or men have more injury road accidents on Friday the 13th compared to previous and following Fridays.”
“There are no lucky or unlucky numbers; they exist only in our heads – or in the heads of some of us – and they might become lucky or unlucky only if we make them as such,” he adds.
So if Friday the 13th feels unlucky to you then it probably is.
