Friday 13th and Friday 17th – origins of the superstition

Today is Friday the 13th and, both in Italy and in English-speaking countries, it is considered an unlucky day. Films have even been devoted to it, such as “Friday the 13th” (1980), starring one of the ultimate villains: Jason.

But why is it considered unlucky? And why in Italy is Friday the 17th feared too?

Friday

Let’s start with the origin of Friday as an ill-omened day. One theory holds that Friday is unlucky because it is the day Jesus was crucified.

Another traces the superstition to Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”, a 14th-century collection of 24 stories, in which this day of the week is said to bring misfortune. Then there are those who cite the arrest of the Knights Templar, ordered by King Philip IV of France on Friday 13 October 1307, but there is no evidence the superstition started there.

Curiously, although both Friday and 13 had been considered unlucky for centuries, there is no record of “Friday the 13th” as a particularly unlucky day before the 19th century. One of the earliest concerns an Italian, the composer Gioachino Rossini: a biographer wrote that, like many Italians, he regarded Friday as unlucky and 13 as an unlucky number, and that he died on Friday 13 November 1868. The superstition was then popularised in English-speaking countries by a 1907 novel, “Friday, the Thirteenth” by Thomas W. Lawson, in which an unscrupulous broker exploits the fear to cause a panic on Wall Street.

The number 13

The number 13 has always been considered unlucky or a bringer of disaster because of episodes in which it plays a leading role.

For example the Last Supper, with Jesus and the 12 apostles before Jesus’s death (hence the custom of never sitting 13 at table); or the Norse myth in which Odin was at table with 11 friends when Loki, the god of mischief, suddenly came in.

It is often said that even in the Code of Hammurabi, dating to around 1772 BC, the number 13 is left out of the list of laws, although this is probably just a gap in some translations.

The fact is that 12 has been considered a perfect number since time immemorial, and 13 therefore seen as of little worth. Some buildings even have no 13th floor, some airports have no gate 13 or seats with that number, and some streets have no number 13.

The number 17

With 17 the story is different. Already in ancient Greece it was considered ill-omened simply because it lies between 16 and 18, which represented the perfection of the 4×4 and 3×6 quadrilaterals; in the Bible the Flood begins on the 17th day; and on tombs in ancient Rome it was customary to carve the word VIXI, “I have lived”, meaning “I am now dead”, which is an anagram of XVII, the Roman numeral 17. In the Neapolitan Smorfia this number stands for “misfortune”.

Perhaps for these reasons Friday the 17th is an entirely Italian superstition.

There are even phobias related to these two days. Those terrified of the number 13 suffer from triskaidekaphobia, those afraid of Friday the 13th specifically from paraskevidekatriaphobia, while those who can’t stand 17 suffer from heptadecaphobia. In the United States millions of people are estimated to fear Friday the 13th.

It is curious how the perception of these days and numbers changes across cultures. In the Jewish Kabbalah, for example, 13 is considered lucky.

In China, Korea and Japan the unlucky number is 4 (and all numbers containing it), because in all three languages it sounds like the word for “death”. In Spain, Greece and Latin America, on the other hand, the unlucky day is Tuesday the 13th.

Now that you know their origins, perhaps these days will scare you a little less. Happy Friday the 13th anyway!

Sources

• Wikipedia, Friday the 13th