Nibble 28 - Friday the 13th


Friday the 13th in History

A list of events that have happened on Friday the 13th.

References and Further info

Friday the 13th

The number 13 became unlucky because of (according to Norse myth) the actions of Loki. 12 gods held a party in Valhalla. Loki wasn’t invited, but he came anyway as the 13th guest. He arranged Höðr (who is blind) to shoot his brother Baldr with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. Mistletoe was the only thing on Earth to not make the vow not to harm Baldr. Baldr died and the Earth got dark. The Earth mourned and the day became unlucky.

Little is known how Friday the 13th became notorious. Some say it’s because Philips VI of France ordered the arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday 13th October 1307. But this origin myth is a 20th century idea, bought on by this coincidence.

The idea that the 13th day of a month is unlucky dated back to 700BC, when Hesiod wrote this in his Works and Days (a farmer's almanac) - “avoid the thirteenth of the waxing month for beginning to sow” (he never said why.).

Some believe its due Jesus Christ been crucified on a Friday (the standard day for crucifixions in Rome) and they were 13 guests at the Last Supper the night before. The idea of Friday and the number 13 arose during the Middle Ages. By the 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer noted in his Canterbury Tales that it is considered unlucky to undertake journeys or begin new projects on a Friday. In late-19th century America, Friday became the traditional day to hold executions.

Historic Record suggests that the idea of Friday 13th been unlucky only dates back to the 19th century. The idea of Friday and the number 13 been unlucky on their own had existed before then, it wasn’t until then that we find the first references of that day been unlucky. An early refence to it is in Henry Sutherland Edwards’ 1869 biography of composer Gioachino Rossini.

“He [Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring friends; and if it be true that, like so many Italians, he regarded Fridays as an unlucky day and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday 13th of November he passed away.” - The Life of Rossini, by Henry Sutherland Edwards (1869)

But it was in the 20th century that the superstition really became the thing it is now. And that has been credited to the 1907 novel Friday the Thirteenth, by Thomas W. Lawson. It is about a broker who takes advantage of the superstition to create a panic in Wall Street on Friday the 13th.

Tuesday 13th and Friday the 17th

The idea that Friday the 13th is unlucky is not universal. In Spanish-speaking countries and Greece, Tuesday the 13th is unlucky. The Greeks consider Tuesday unlucky due to multiple reasons. Ares, the god of war, has influence on this day. They call this day Τρίτη “Triti” (the “third day” of the week), and bad luck “comes in threes.” But what really cements it is that the dates when Constantinople fell, first to the Crusaders (13th April 1204) and, later again, to the Ottomans (29th May 1453) happened to be a Tuesday.

In Italy the number 13 is considered lucky. It’s Friday the 17th that worries them. Although, thanks to the increasing influence of American culture, younger Italians are concerned about Friday 13th, too.

17 is unlucky to Italians because of how it was written in Roman numerals – XVII. It can be misspelled as VIXI ("I have lived").

When is Friday 13th?

It is guaranteed that a Friday will fall on a 13th day of a month at least once, but no more than three times, a year. One sign which month it’ll happen in is that it’ll begin with a Sunday. Check your calendar and see for yourself. The longest gap you can experience between Friday 13ths is 14 months.

There is a 28-year cycle in when Friday 13th happens. If the 1st January of a 365-day year happens to be a Thursday, Friday 13th will happen in February, March, and November that year. In leap years, if the 1st January happens to be a Sunday, Friday 13th will happen in January, April and July.

The February-March-November Friday 13th sequence common year happens regularly in a pattern of six years, then eleven years, then eleven again, and repeat. This pattern does get interrupted when a year ending with 00, like 1800, isn’t a leap year.  

Note – the English-speaking world switched from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. The transition involved removing 11 days off the calendar. This is why there is a 14-year gap between 1747 and 1761 in the cycle.

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