Here's the truth behind Friday the 13th’s bad luck—do you believe it?
Bad things actually happened on Friday the 13th
Some people point to all the negative occurrences on various Fridays the 13th throughout history as proof that the day is unlucky. Examples include hundreds of Knights Templar being arrested in 1307, the bombing of Buckingham Palace in 1940, the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York, in 1964, the death of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996, and the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy in 2012.
Friday the 13th is tied to trickery
Though the precise origins of Friday the 13th’s bad luck are a bit murky, we can trace some of the fear of the number 13 all the way back to ancient Norse mythology. In his book Holiday Folklore, Phobias and Fun, Donald Dossey recounts a story about a dinner party attended by 12 gods. Everything was going smoothly … until the uninvited 13th guest showed up: Loki, the trickster god.
True to form, he caused chaos, ultimately killing Balder, the god of joy and happiness. From that point on, the number 13 started earning a sinister reputation—and when you pair it with Friday, already considered an unlucky day in medieval Europe, you get the perfect storm for Friday the 13th to become the calendar’s ultimate “uh-oh” day.
Friday the 13th is compared to the Last Supper
There’s a second story about a dinner involving 13 people that is also partially responsible for the Friday the 13th superstition. This was, of course, the Last Supper, in which 13 people ate together on the day before the Friday that Jesus was crucified. The attendees were Jesus and his 12 apostles—including Judas, who ended up betraying Jesus. Having 13 guests at the Last Supper, then Jesus being crucified on a Friday, has led some to believe that Friday the 13th is bad luck.
13 is considered an unlucky number
If you have triskaidekaphobia, you have a fear of the number 13, and you’re not alone. In some cultures, 12 is considered the “perfect” number: There are 12 months in a year, two 12-hour half days, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 days of Christmas, 12 zodiac signs, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 gods of Olympus and so on.
Basically, 12 was a tough act to follow—to the point where people then thought that 13 was unlucky. And when that unlucky 13 lands on a Friday? Voila, Friday the 13th was born. To this day, there are still high-rise buildings where there is no 13th floor (or, more accurately, the elevator buttons go from 12 to 14).
Friday the 13th may change our behavior
Though there’s no science suggesting that Friday the 13th is actually unlucky, Kenneth Drinkwater, a parapsychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University in England, told Live Science that people still alter their behavior when that date rolls around.
For instance, people may change the way they drive on Friday the 13th—being extra cautious out of fear that something bad will happen. But when you look at the occurrence of traffic accidents based on the date, they aren’t more frequent on Friday the 13th.
One book fueled the superstition behind Friday the 13th
In 1907, a writer named Thomas William Lawson published a book called Friday, the Thirteenth, in which an unethical stockbroker takes advantage of people’s belief in the superstition on that day to win big in the stock market. This became known as “Wall Street hoodoo-day.” Though this was a work of fiction, it planted in people’s minds the idea that Friday the 13th was an unlucky day.
Friday the 13th inspired the Thirteen Club
In the late 1800s, Capt. William Fowler, a well-known soldier, was fed up with all the mythology around Friday the 13th and decided to do something about it. Fowler created the Thirteen Club, a society of people who gathered together and specifically did activities meant to cause bad luck.
For example, for their first gathering in 1881, they walked under ladders to a 13-seat table covered in spilled salt (also considered to be unlucky). Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison and Theodore Roosevelt were all members of the Thirteen Club.
Friday the 13th has been amplified in mainstream media
While Lawson’s book was the original Friday the 13th pop‑culture moment, others quickly followed—most famously the 1980 horror movie franchise Friday the 13th, which turned the unlucky date into a slasher staple. The series eventually spun off into comic books, novellas, video games and a whole mess of merchandise, all built around the hockey‑masked menace Jason Voorhees.
As of now, there are 12 official Friday the 13th films, from the original 1980 classic through sequels like Part 2, Jason Lives and Jason Takes Manhattan, to the sci‑fi flick Jason X, the crossover Freddy vs. Jason and the 2009 reboot.
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Sources:
- The Journal of Finance: “Friday the Thirteenth: ‘Part VII’—A Note”
- Live Science: “The Science Behind Your (Irrational) Fear of Friday the 13th”
- Live Science: “Origins of Friday the 13th: How the Day Got So Spooky”
- Time: “Here’s Why Friday the 13th Is Considered Unlucky”
- History.com: “Friday the 13th”
