Why do people fear friday 13th

Read More. Superstitious rituals and lucky charms give us a comforting sense of control over the unexpected when there is nothing more practical that can be done. In the case of the lucky superstitions, there is some evidence that belief in luck-enhancing powers can bring psychological benefits and improve performance. But the phobic, unlucky superstitions are more problematic.

Once acquired, these superstitions bring their own anxiety. If you believe Friday the 13th is unlucky, on average, a couple of times a year you will be forced to consider whether to adapt your daily routine to avoid the prospect of harm.

When bad things happen to us, we may prefer having something to blame, such as a traditionally unlucky day. But the price we pay for this illusory explanation is having to confront a recurring fear whenever Friday the 13th rolls around. For some, the traditional origins of the Friday the 13th superstition probably encourage belief in the day's dark power. There are many theories about the source of this superstition, but the most lasting and convincing points to the biblical account of the Last Supper, which the Bible describes as a gathering of Jesus and the 12 apostles just before Jesus' crucifixion on Good Friday.

It's also probably best theory for explaining why the number 13 itself is considered unlucky. There's also a common superstition about 13 people at a table being bad luck, which is thought to have the same origin. When otherwise unremarkable events occur on that date, we tend to notice. Fortunately, Risen's research also suggests a way to reverse the curse : perform rituals that ward off bad luck, like knocking on wood or throwing salt. Risen found that some people use them even when they don't actively believe, and when tested, both types of people reported benefits from such acts.

In that way, simply being aware of superstitions may help to instill a sense of order in a world of random and uncontrollable worries, according to Rebecca Borah , a professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. On Friday the 13th, "we don't do anything too scary today, or double-check that there's enough gas in the car, or whatever it might be.

It's difficult to pin down the origins and evolution of a superstition. But Stuart Vyse , a professor of psychology at Connecticut College in New London, said our fear of Friday the 13th may be rooted in religious beliefs surrounding the 13th guest at the Last Supper—Judas, the apostle said to have betrayed Jesus—and the crucifixion of Jesus on a Friday, which was known as hangman's day. The combination of those factors produced a "sort of double whammy of 13 falling on an already nervous day," Vyse explained in Some biblical scholars also believe Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit on a Friday, and that Abel was slain by his brother Cain on Friday the 13th.

Curiously, Spain appears to have escaped this malevolent marriage of number and day. Friday the 13th is no cause for alarm there, and instead Tuesday the 13th is the year's most dangerous date. Other experts suspect even older roots for this form of triskaidekaphobia. Thomas Fernsler , an associate policy scientist in the Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center at the University of Delaware in Newark, said the number 13 suffers because of its position after Numerologists consider 12 a "complete" number.

There are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles of Jesus. The number 13's association with bad luck "has to do with just being a little beyond completeness. Numerology may also explain why Italians have no qualms about Friday the 13th but fear the 17th instead.

The most prominent explanation for the fear of the number 13, known as triskaidekaphobia, is that it came from the biblical Last Supper, when there were 13 people at the table. As for how Friday came to be involved, Christ was supposedly crucified on that day, and Fridays have always had a special significance in religion.

In addition, people were commonly hung on Friday, which became known as hangman's day, Vyse said. But the fears of Friday and the number 13 weren't combined until the 19th century, he said. Polls show that between 9 and 13 percent of the adult U. Fast forward to the s, and a hockey-masked killer by the name of Jason Voorhees in the slasher flick franchise "Friday the 13th" ensured notoriety. Then came Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code," which helped popularize the incorrect claim that the superstition originated with the arrests of hundreds of members of the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, An alternative history.

Given the mass of doom-laden lore, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Friday 13th is indeed ominous. If we dig deeper, though, we also find evidence that both Fridays and the number 13 have long been regarded as a harbinger of good fortune. In pagan times, for instance, Friday was believed to have a unique association with the divine feminine.

The first clue can actually be found in the weekday name Friday, which is derived from Old English and means "day of Frigg. Frigg gave protection to homes and families, maintained social order, and could weave fate as she did the clouds. She also possessed the art of prophecy, and could bestow or remove fertility. On the other hand, Freyja, the goddess of love, fertility and war with whom Frigg was often conflated, was endowed with the power to perform magic, predict the future, and determine who would die in battles, and was said to ride a chariot pulled by two black cats.

These goddesses were worshiped widely across Europe and, because of these associations, Friday was considered a lucky day for marriage by Norse and Teutonic people. The Venus of Laussel clutches a crescent-shaped horn bearing 13 notches -- a potential reference to lunar and menstrual cycles. The number 13, meanwhile, has long been regarded as a portentous number by pre-Christian and goddess-worshipping cultures for its link to the number of lunar and menstrual cycles that occur in a calendar year.

Fertility was prized in pagan times, and artwork would often draw connections to menstruation, fertility and the phases of the moon.