Friday the 13th
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Friday occurring on the 13th day of any month is considered to be a day of bad luck in English, German, Polish and Portuguese-speaking cultures around the globe. Similar superstitions exist in some other traditions. In Greece or Spain, for example, Tuesday the 13th takes the same role. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia (a word that is derived from the concatenation of the Greek words ?a?as?e?ή ;, de?at?e??, and f??a, meaning Friday, thirteen, and phobia respectively; alternate spellings include paraskevodekatriaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia) or friggatriskaidekaphobia, and is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a phobia (fear) of the number thirteen.
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History of Friday the 13th
Before the 20th century, although there is evidence that the number 13 was considered unlucky, and Friday was considered unlucky, there was no link between them.
Many popular stories exist about the origin of the concept:
- The Last Supper, with stories that Judas was the thirteenth guest, and that the Crucifixion of Jesus occurred Friday.
- That the biblical Eve offered the fruit to Adam on a Friday, and that the slaying of Abel happened on a Friday (though the Bible does not identify the days of the week when these events occurred). [1]
- Many modern stories (including The Da Vinci Code) claim that when King Philip IV had many Knights Templar simultaneously arrested on Friday, October 13, 1307, that started the legend of the unlucky Friday the 13th.
Neither these nor any other historical date have been verifiably identified as the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition. The first documented mention of a "Friday the 13th" is generally listed as occurring in the early 1900s.[2][3] [4]
In the case of Greece, Tuesday, April 13, 1204 was the date that Constantinople was sacked by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade. The first-ever fall of what was then the richest Christian city, and the looting that followed, allegedly gave Tuesday 13 its bad meaning. Coincidentally, Constantinople fell for the second time in its history on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, to the Ottoman Turks, a date that puts an end to the Byzantine empire, and to Greek sovereignty for several centuries, and therefore reinforcing Tuesday as an unlucky day in the Greek world.[citations needed]
Effects in people and cultures
- "It's been estimated that [U.S] $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day because people will not fly or do business they would normally do." [5]
Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they are simply unable to get out of bed when Friday the 13th rolls around. The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute estimates that more than 17 million people are affected by a fear of this day. [6] Despite that, representatives for both Delta and Continental Airlines say that their airlines don't suffer from any noticeable drop in travel on those Fridays. [7]
A British Medical Journal study has shown that there is a significant increase in traffic related accidents on Friday the 13ths.[8]
The date is well-known in the motorcycle (biker) community: Since 1981, motorcycle enthusiasts and vendors gather every Friday the 13th in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada. This tradition started on November 13, 1981 by Chris Simons as a gathering of approximately 25 friends. The event has grown substantially, with an estimated 100,000 people attending in August 2004, as well as music bands, vendors, a bike show, etc.
In the Spanish-speaking world, it is Tuesday the 13th the day that supposedly brings bad luck; a proverb runs En martes, ni te cases ni te embarques, ni de tu familia te apartes. (On Tuesday, neither get married nor start a journey, or separate yourself from your family.)
Occurrence
| The following months have a Friday the 13th:
| Or, the other way around, the following years have Fridays the 13th in these months:
|
This sequence, here given for 2001-2028, repeats every 28 years from 1901 to 2099. The months with a Friday the 13th are determined by the Dominical letter (G, F, GF, etc.) of the year. All months whose first day falls on a Sunday will contain a Friday the 13th.
Every year has at least one and at most three Fridays the 13th, with 48 occurences in 28 years an average of 1.7 times per year.
The Gregorian Calendar 400-year cycle contains a whole number (20,871) of weeks and 146,097 days, but the number of months (4800) is not divisible by seven. Along with the 146,000 days, (400 x 365 days), there are ninety-seven February 29s and Leap Year Days. The easiest way to explain how and why the Gregorian Calendar rotates during any 400-year cycle is that there are 365 days every year. Ninety-seven of the 400 years are Leap Years and contain a February 29; in them, there are 366 days. Years with 365 days have 52 weeks, with one additional day; years with 366 days have 52 weeks, with two additional days. Just add the additional days, after the fifty-two weeks, during all 400 years. The 97 Leap Years double to 194. Then add the other 303, and the overall total is 497. 97 plus 97 plus 303 equals 497. 497 days equals seventy-one weeks. Add the fifty-two weeks, in the four-hundred-year system of the Gregorian Calendar, (other than the 497 additional days), and there are 145,600 days, equalling 20,800 weeks. 145,600 days plus 497 days equals 146,097 days, which equals the 20,871 weeks and 146,097 days, listed above. Because of this, no chosen day of the month up to the 28th can occur the same number of times on each day of the week. The 13th day of the month is slightly more likely to be on a Friday than on any other day of the week.[9]
The distribution of the 13th day of the 4,800 months is as follows:
| Sunday | 687 |
| Monday | 685 |
| Tuesday | 685 |
| Wednesday | 687 |
| Thursday | 684 |
| Friday | 688 |
| Saturday | 684 |
Trivia
- Black Sabbath's self-titled debut album was released in the UK on Friday, February 13, 1970.
- Novelist Daniel Handler, also known as Lemony Snicket, released the 13th book of the Series of Unfortunate Events on Friday, October 13, 2006.
- January 13, 2006, and October 13, 2006, were not only Fridays, but the digits in the month, day, and year of each date add up to 13. This last occurred on October 13, 1520, and will next occur on May 13, 2011.
- There is an almost uncanny occurrence (at least in recent years) of the full moon falling on or very close to a Friday the 13th. July 13th, 1984, February 13th, 1987, March 13th, 1998, October 13th, 2000 were all full moons. June 13th, 2003 and January 13th, 2006 were the days before a full moon, and June 13th, 2014 and January 13th, 2017 occur slightly after the full moon. Friday, September 13th, 2019 will be the next year to contain a full moon on a Friday the 13th.[10]
- The asteroid 99942 Apophis will make its close encounter on Friday, April 13, 2029.
- The Harry Potter Movie: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be released on Friday, July 13, 2007.
- Hurricane Charley made landfall in Florida on Friday, August 13, 2004.
Notable births and deaths on Friday the 13th
| Born on Friday the 13th | Date of Birth |
|---|---|
| Georges Simenon | February 13, 1903 |
| Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen | January 13, 1911 |
| Margaret Thatcher | October 13, 1925 |
| Fidel Castro | August 13, 1926 |
| T. J. Cloutier | October 13, 1939 |
| Zo Wanamaker | May 13, 1949 |
| Peter Davison | April 13, 1951 |
| Max Weinberg | April 13, 1951 |
| Steve Buscemi | December 13, 1957 |
| Julia Louis-Dreyfus | January 13, 1961 |
| Will Clark | March 13, 1964 |
| Tim Story | March 13, 1970 |
| Michelle Sara Cox | December 13, 1974 |
| Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen | June 13, 1986 |
| Marco Andretti | March 13, 1987 |
| Died on Friday the 13th | Date of Death |
|---|---|
| Arnold Schoenberg | July 13, 1951 |
| Hubert Humphrey | January 13, 1978 |
| Stuart Challender | December 13, 1991 |
| Tupac Shakur | September 13, 1996 |
| Tony Roper | October 13, 2000 |
