Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th has long been considered a day of bad luck, misfortune and all around general nastiness. Although many people fear the date, just as many don’t know the truth behind the reasons that the day came to be so generally feared. 

The fear of Friday the 13th has been the inspiration for many things- A secret society in the late 19th-century, a popular novel in the early 20th-century and a wildly well-known horror film franchise that started in the late 20th-century and continues to this day, over two decades into the 21st century. 

The fear of the date is so well-known and accepted that names have been created for the condition: 

frigga-tris-kai-deka-phobia and para-ska-ve-deka-tria-phobia 

The fear of Friday the 13th has its origins in the fear of the number thirteen itself. 

As with a black cat crossing your path or breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder, a great number of people believe that the number 13 is a bearer of bad luck. This is not anything new  or modern- the number 13 has been considered cursed for  hundreds if not thousands of years. 

While the culture of the western world have long associated the number 12 with being whole- such as 12 in a dozen, 12 months in a year, 12 Days of Christmas, and 12 signs of the zodiac, adding just one digit and making it 13 upsets what it believed to be the natural order of things, and thus brings about bad luck. 

Many Christians consider the number 13 unlucky due to incidents in the Bible. For example, 13 guests were in attendance at the Last Supper- Jesus, along with his 12 apostles (including Judas, who betrayed him). Of course, the next day in the Christian tradition was Good Friday, the day of Christ’s crucifixion, so it’s easy to see the logical connection. 

The fact that there were 13 seated at the Last Supper gave rise to the tradition that 13 guests at a table is unlucky and could be a harbinger of an impending death. 

Though the unlucky association with Friday is not as common, it’s also a part of the Christian tradition that many bad things happened on a Friday- the aforementioned crucifixion of Jesus, as well as the day Eve gave the apple to Adam and later the day  when Cain slew his brother, Abel. 

However, there are some people who not only don’t believe the number 13 to be unlucky, they instead go out of their way to  prove their point. One such example consisted of the infamous Thirteen Club of old New York. 

In the late 1800s, a former sea captain, William Fowler, took great joy in disproving all the myths surrounding the number 13. The fact that seafaring folk are generally very superstitious only added to the Captain’s delight, and he whimsically created a “secret society” in New York City which he called The Thirteen Club. 

The members met regularly for dinner at 8:13 PM on the 13th day of every month, in room 13 of the Knickerbocker (a cottage and a local watering hole which Fowler owned). As 13 candelabras each bearing 13 candles were lit, the 13 guests sat down for a 13-course meal. Upon entering the hall, they had already been required to walk beneath a ladder and a banner bearing the Latin inscription “Morituri te Salutamus,” which translates roughly to “We who are about to die, salute you.”  

As far as is known, no tragedies befell any of the members during their membership, and there were even four Presidents of the United States who were members of the secret society at one time or another: Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and Theodore Roosevelt all lived to tell the tale. In fact, at the meeting honoring the first anniversary of the  group, the club scribe gleefully noted “Out of the entire roll of membership … whether they have participated or not at the banquet table, NOT A SINGLE MEMBER IS DEAD, or has even had a serious illness. On the contrary, so far as can be learned, the members during the past twelve months have been exceptionally healthy and fortunate.” 

In regard to its place in popular culture, Friday the 13th is known for a couple of different entities. The first instance of note being when, in 1907, a writer named Thomas William Lawson published what would become a popular novel, titled  “Friday, the 13th.”  

Interestingly or perhaps oddly enough, the plot of the novel was the story of a New York City stockbroker who used the fears and phobias of Friday the 13th to manufacture mayhem on Wall Street and in turn make a killing on the stock market.  

Perhaps the best known example in modern times of the Friday the 13th superstition was brought about by the horror movie, Friday the 13th. First released in 1980, Friday the 13th would go on to become considered the greatest horror film franchise of all times, and kickstarted the “slasher” genre. Spawning an astounding 11 films to date, the movie also led to a television show, comic books, video games and a plethora of character related merchandise, most notably of Jason Voorhees, the masked killer from the series. Needless to say, Friday the 13th was in no way unlucky for a man named Sean Cunningham, the creator of the franchise which took the world by storm. 

So, what other bad things have happened on Friday the 13th?  

In the year 1307 on Friday, October 13, officers from the court of France’s King Philip IV arrested hundreds of the Knights Templar, a mighty military and religious sect formed to protect the Holy Land in the 12th century. 

Thrown in prison from trumped up charges of various illegal behaviors against the crown, Many of the templars were put to  death. In reality, the king actually cared more about their rumored treasures than any supposed crimes. It’s clear why this incident only reinforced the biblical ramifications of the Friday the 13th superstition. Whether the templars believed in the curse of the date is unknown, due to the dark and secretive nature of their organization. 

In modern times, there have been many infamous incidents which have occurred on Friday the 13th. 

On Friday, September 13th 1940, the Germans bombed Buckingham Palace. 

Friday, March 13th 1964 saw the gruesome murder of Kitty Genovese. Stabbed repeatedly outside her apartment building in broad daylight, the New York Times reported that as many as 38 passersby witnessed the attack but did nothing to assist  the young woman. 

On Friday the 13th of November, 1970, a freak cyclone of record proportion killed an incredible 300,000-plus people in Bangladesh. 

Friday, October 13th, 1972, a Chilean Air Force plane disappeared in the Andes, killing half of those on board, either from the crash or from freezing temperatures in the remote mountain region. The handful that survived had to resort to cannibalism before they were rescued. 

On Friday, September 13th, 1996, legendary rapper Tupac Shakur died from injuries received days prior during a drive-by shooting outside a Las Vegas casino. 

Most recently, on Friday the 13th of January 2012, a cruise ship named the Costa Concordia crashed off the Italian coast, killing 30. 

And so it goes. Regardless of whether you choose to avoid black cats or sidestep around open ladders on Friday the 13th, Dr. Phil Stevens, associate professor of anthropology at the University at Buffalo, says that it’s very important not to mock  other folks’s inner-convictions surrounding not only Friday the 13th, but any fear or phobia.  

“Sometimes these are frivolous things, but sometimes they are deeply rooted cultural fears,” Stevens says.  

“You can insult somebody by making fun of it or you can be ignorant yourself. Some people have deep cultural taboos that you cannot change by denying them.”

Whatever you believe, have a good Friday the 13th! In fact, this Friday the 13th, 2023, Nicole and I celebrate our three-month wedding anniversary!