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Hey, everybody.
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I'm Cristen from "Stuff Mom Never Told You"
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here to tell you why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky.
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Because in North America and Europe,
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a significant proportion of the population
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behaves very strangely on Friday the 13th.
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Some people won't fly in airplanes,
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host parties, apply for jobs, get married,
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or even start new projects.
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In fact, in the United States, roughly 8% of the population
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is afraid of Friday the 13th, which
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is a condition known as-- say it with me--
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Paraskevidekatriaphobia.
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That's right.
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It's actually a combination of two separate fears.
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We have fear of the number 13, called triskaidekaphobia,
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and fear of Fridays, which is funny
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because everybody's always working for the weekend,
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or so I thought.
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Anyway, the most familiar source of both of these phobias
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is actually Christian theology.
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13 is significant to Christians because it
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is the number of people who were present at the Last Supper,
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because you've got Jesus and his Twelve Apostles.
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And Judas, the Apostle who betrayed Jesus,
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was allegedly the 13th member of the party to arrive.
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I think Judas was just being fashionably late, but you know.
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Now Christians have traditionally
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been wary of Fridays because they also
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think that Jesus was crucified on a Friday.
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Some theologians think that Adam and Eve
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ate from the forbidden fruit on a Friday.
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What's going on?
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Why are all of the worst events in the Bible happening
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on Friday, including the Great Flood?
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Yeah, supposedly Noah and his Ark set sail on a Friday.
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Is Friday God's least favorite day?
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I'm starting to maybe think that it is.
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Because of all this, in the past many Christians would never
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begin any new project or trip on a Friday for fear that
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the endeavour would be doomed from the start.
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Now sailors were particularly superstitious in this regard,
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often refusing to ship out to sea on a Friday.
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According to nautical legend, in the 18th century
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the British Navy commissioned a ship called the HMS Friday
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in order to quell this superstition.
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The Navy selected the crew on a Friday.
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They launched the ship on a Friday.
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They even selected a man named James Friday as the ship's
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captain.
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And then one Friday morning the ship set sail.
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But at bad luck would have it, it disappeared.
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Some historians then also trace a Christian distrust of Friday
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to the church's overall opposition to pagan religions,
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because, did you know, Friday is named after Frigg,
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the Norse goddess of love and sex
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who sounds like a really fun lady
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to invite to one of your weekend parties.
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Now this strong female figure, these historians claimed,
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posed a threat to the male dominated Christianity.
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So to fight her influence, the Christian church
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characterized her as a witch, vilifying the day after her.
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This characterization may have also played
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a part of the fear of the number 13, triskaidekaphobia.
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Do you remember that word?
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Yeah.
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I did.
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I can just now start to say it correctly.
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It was said that Frigg would often
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join a convent of witches, normally a group of 12,
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bringing the total number to 13.
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And a similar Christian tradition
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holds that 13 is unholy because it signifies
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the gathering of 12 witches and the devil.
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What?
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That's kind of cool.
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Some trace the infamy of the number 13
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also back to ancient Norse culture.
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In Norse mythology, the beloved hero Baldr
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was killed at a banquet by the malevolent god
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Loki who crashed the party of, you guessed it, 12,
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bringing the group to 13.
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And this story plus the story of the Last Supper
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led to one of the most entrenched connotations
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of the number 13.
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You should never sit down to a meal at a group of 13.
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Another significant part of the Friday the 13th legend
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is particularly bad.
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And this was a Friday the 13th that
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occurred in the Middle Ages.
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On a Friday the 13th in 1306, King Philip of France
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burned the revered Knights of Templar at the stake,
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marking the day as an occasion of evil.
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Now these days, some people come to fear Friday
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the 13th because of misfortune they've
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experienced on that day in the past.
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So if you get in a car wreck on Friday the 13th
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or lose your wallet on that day, then that superstition
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is bound to stick with you.
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If you think about it, terrible things, horrible things,
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or just mundane things like spilling coffee on your lap,
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losing your wallet, losing your cell phone, et cetera,
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this stuff happens all of the time.
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If you're looking for bad luck on Friday the 13th,
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you'll probably find it.
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Same thing with Saturday the 14th
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or Sunday the 15th, bad luck is everywhere, people.
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So why do we consider Friday the 13th unlucky?
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Well, maybe just because we want to.
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If you want to learn more about traditions, cultures,
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and how our bodies work in this crazy modern world,
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you should watch more BrainStuff videos.
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And don't forget to subscribe.
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It's a very lucky thing to do.
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I promise.
