UNUSUAL – A Friday the 13th that falls during the start of the school year? If you are superstitious, today rhymes with anxiety and mistrust, and if you are phobic of this date, it is the worst day of the year. Because yes, the phobia of Friday the 13th exists, and it has a name: paraskevidekatriaphobia.
This phobia also includes the fear of the number 13, which does not inspire confidence for several reasons: first, it follows the number 12, very reassuring since we find it everywhere, from our calendar to our divinities. Then in Norse mythology, the god of mischief Loki was the thirteenth guest at a dinner where he caused the death of one of the gods. In the Christian religion, during the Last Supper, the last meal of Jesus before his crucifixion, there were 13 guests… including the traitor Judas.
As you can see in our video above, These myths have real-life consequences: in the United States, many hotels do not have a thirteenth floor. Hospitals and airports also avoid using the number 13. According to The Atlantic, In 2015 in Manhattan, 91% of buildings had renamed their thirteenth floor. « M »the thirteenth letter of the alphabet, or « 12B » or « 14A ».
Bad luck or good luck?
Fear of Friday the 13th is more recent. Some say the curse dates back to Friday, October 13, 1307, when King Philip the Fair arrested and tortured the Knights Templar. But according to the American Folklife Center, the belief spread primarily in 19th-century Europe before arriving in North America, where a horror film series of the same name was released in the 1980s.
In reality, there is no scientific evidence that Friday the 13th is a particularly sinister day. In 2015, a British study showed that people born on Friday the 13th were no less fortunate than others. On the contrary, according to a Dutch study from 2008, there were even fewer car accidents or fires on this date, perhaps because people are more careful than usual.
If Friday the 13th still makes you feel uneasy, remember that it is already a very Western belief. In China, for example, it is rather the number 4 that brings bad luck, because of its pronunciation which resembles the word « mort ». And then 13 is also Taylor Swift’s favorite number, and on Friday the 13th, the lottery jackpots are generally higher.
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