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Friday the 13th has long been deemed a harbringer of bad luck and other ill-fated occurrences. The superstition, which has percolated into modern society over centuries, still makes people wary whenever the date is around the corner.
Luckily for those who raise their guards on the inauspicious day, Friday the 13th occurs only up to three times a year. In 2022, May 13 marks the only instance of the date coinciding with Friday. Although it is arguably one of the most popular superstitions in western culture, the origin of the date being considered such a bad omen still remains slightly shrouded in mystery.
Significance and origin of Friday the 13th
The origin story of why Friday the 13th is associated with mishaps and misfortune is hard to pinpoint since there are a number of plausible theories. The lore is also rooted in the fact that both Friday and the number 13 have had negative connotations across several cultures.
In the Biblical context, the date is tied to Jesus' infamous Last Supper and his subsequent crucifixion. Leonardo Da Vinci's portrayal of the night featured Jesus with his 12 disciples in the Upper Room on the 13th of Nisan Maundy Thursday, the night before the Lord's crucifixion on Good Friday. Jesus' betrayal was also orchestrated by Judas Iscariot, who was the 13th dinner guest at the table.
The demise of the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307, is also purported to be a viable reason behind the superstition. The Knights Templar was founded as a monastic military order in 1118, charged with the mission of protecting pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. The Knights quickly rose in rank to become one of the most influential groups of their time, endorsed by lavish donations from the crowned heads of Western Europe.
Their enviable wealth drew many vying eyes, most notably that of King Philip IV of France, who ordered the Knights' arrest on that fateful Friday the 13th in a bid to wrest control of their money, land and power. The Knights Templar's brutal torture and starvation has been documented in literary texts like The Iron King (1955) by Maurice Druon and The Da Vinci Code (2003) by Dan Brown.
There is also a Norse myth that resembles Jesus' Last Supper and the bad luck associated with 13 dinner guests. Featuring Norse mythology's resident mischief-maker Loki, the tale goes that the trickster god crashed a banquet at Valhalla uninvited, becoming the unwanted 13th guest. His presence intiatied a chain of mishaps that contributed to Friday the 13th's bad reputation in Scandinavia.
Thomas W. Lawson's novel Friday, the Thirteenth (1907) only further peddled the superstition associated with the day. The book's protagonist is a banker who cashes in on the combined fear around Friday and 13 to create a huge Wall Street panic on the eponymous day. Henry Sutherland's 1869 biography of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, who died on November 13, a Friday, also mentioned how Rossini had always regarded both Friday and 13 as unlucky.
A few other unsettling events that occurred on Friday the 13th such as the German bombing of the Buckingham Palace and the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur has further solidified the day's negative connotation. The fear of the number 13 and specifically Friday the 13th are so common that they've been designated official terminology — Triskaidekaphobia and Paraskavedekatriaphobia, respectively.
Even today, a number of hotels, major airlines, and cruise liners prefer to steer clear of the number 13 in their establishments, which is a testament to how deeply this superstition is rooted in our society.
