Friday the 13th: why we fear it and where does this superstition come from

Unlike in Anglo-Saxon countries, where Friday the 13th is considered unlucky, In Spain and other Latin American countries, the fatal date is Tuesday the 13th.

Even a popular saying in the region is “on Tuesdays, don’t get married, don’t get on board and don’t leave your house”.

Reasons, it seems, there are a lot of reasons 13 is bad luck. Hidden energies have been attributed to this number for centuries.

There were 13 people present at the Last Supper (Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles). It is in chapter 13 of Revelation that we speak of the arrival of the Antichrist.

According to Nordic tradition, Loki – the spirit of evil. he became the guest 13 at a dinner of gods, and according to Kabbalah there were 13 evil spirits.

For the Egyptians, phase 13 of the life cycle was death. While in the Tarot number 13 is death, although in reality its meaning is that of change.

But why did the number 13 end up being associated with Tuesday? Here are also various explanations. In Greek lore, it is said that Typhon was born on Tuesday, a winged monster that could reach for the stars.

Until a few decades ago in these latitudes, a day like today, it would not have been more relevant. However, among other effects of globalization, there are festivities, events and even superstitions from other hemispheres taking hold among us.

It is assumed that in Latin America, the association between Friday, the number 13 and bad luck, occurred starting with Jason and his film franchise.

The origin of considering that all kinds of accidents, misfortunes, bad omens and cascades of bad luck can be unleashed on a Friday the 13th is diffused. There are many theories on this subject and too many dates have been taken throughout history to know when this strange superstition arose. Strange, in particular, because fearing just one day makes us assume that the other days are safe or harmless.

Others attribute negative significance to its association with Mars, the god of war among the Romans, named Ares after the Greeks and which carries with it destruction, violence and blood.

Some have interpreted from the Bible that it was Tuesday when the Tower of Babel confusion occurred.

The list goes on. On Tuesday the 13th, the Roman Empire fell in Constantinople. FIt was then that in the Christian world the idea of ​​Tuesdays as days of misfortune spread.

In the Anglo-Saxon world, 13 is also considered an unlucky number, but the fatal combination comes when it falls on Friday. Because? Some believe that because on Friday the 13th (in 1307) took place the massacre of the Order of the Templars.

Several centuries later, by order of Philip IV, on October 13, 1307, a Friday, several dozen Templars accused of serious crimes against Christendom were tried and executed. The Inquisition ordered that they be killed immediately. The charges were varied: heresy, lust, foray into sodomy. The massacre led to the demise of the Order of the Templars. Some managed to escape although most were captured in a short time. While he was burning at the stake, Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master, the first in the hierarchy, cursed Pope Clement and King Philippe IV. He shouted to them, in the midst of the flames, that in less than a year they would both appear before a tribunal like him, but of a different type, the one who knows appeals, the divine tribunal. The two rulers, the king and the pope, died in the months that followed. What happened during his last trial is unknown.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Fridays were very bad days. These were the days of the execution. On those days convicted convicts were hanged. The act summoned the people to the gallows. The ceremony, the macabre spectacle colored the day and the atmosphere of the villages.

Besides Truman Capote, many other famous people feared him to this day. Winston Churchill was one of them. At that time, his acts of government were tenuous, almost invisible, and his immobility almost total. Churchill gave up several meals when he realized that there were 13 diners. The terror that composer Gioachino Rossini manifested on Friday the 13th did not seem unfounded. After years of avoiding risks during this time, he died on November 13, 1868. A Friday, of course.

The fear of this day exists. The proof is that this phobia even has a name. And we know that for many what has a word that names it, exists. As bizarre as it is. It is true that the name is complicated and if it was not for Google or a scientific text, no one would remember it. The fear of Friday the 13th is called parascevedecatriaphobia (paresceve is the paschal preparation) or friggaatriscaidecaphobia (Frrigga comes from the Scandinavian goddess of the same name, origin of Friday-Friday in English); Triscaidecaphobia is the fear of the number thirteen.

We know of many manifestations of the latter. Football techs who don’t wear this jersey on their campuses, hotels that go from floors 12 to 14, hospitals that refuse rooms with 1 and 3 continued, or airlines that ignore this row.

A Dutch study carried out a little over a decade ago showed a peculiarity. On Friday the 13th, the rate of car and domestic accidents fell sharply. This would indicate that the curse would not exist. But when they started to investigate, they found out that it was a statistical question. On Friday the 13th, in his country, there was less traffic and less activity. The phobia, the fear, had acted in a preventive way.

A North American consulting firm, at the end of the last century, claimed that the country’s commercial activity had sharply declined on Friday the 13th, but several airlines denied the data. These Fridays, they sold the same number of passages as those that fall in another issue.

Fearing the schedule, go under a ladder, break a mirror, enter a playground with the left foot. Superstitions are varied and with very different manifestations. Even the most reasonable believe, incur them. Believing in something, being afraid of something, even if it does not follow a causal logic, is sometimes a way of seeking security, of feeling accompanied, even covered by the irrational. This need to take refuge in what we do not understand.

KEEP READING: