When you purchase through links on our site , we may take in an affiliate charge . Here ’s how it works .
Does Friday the 13th freak you out ? If so , confine on to your cony ’s metrical unit extra tight , because there are three of these purportedly unlucky engagement in 2012 , though perhaps luckily , this Friday ( July 13 ) is the last of them . Though , there ’s always some fright to be had next year , 2013 .
Read on for 13 foreign facts about this twenty-four hours of superstition .
Are you superstitious? Plan to stay in tonight?
1 . This class is a special one for Friday the 13ths : There are three of them : Jan. 13 , April 13 and July 13 . The freaky matter ? The dates fall precisely 13 workweek apart . That has n’t happened since 1984 .
2 . If that scares you , you may have paraskavedekatriaphobia ( also know as friggatriskaidekaphobia ) . Those are the scientific condition for fear of Friday the 13th . Triskaidekaphobia isfear of the act 13 .
3 . It ’s not clear when or why Friday the 13th became associated with regretful portion . The association may be biblical , given that the thirteenth guest at the Last Supper bewray Jesus . His crucifixion was the next day , plainly a Friday . Or possibly 13 suffers from amount after the more - pleasing numeral 12 , which perplex to keep down the months , the days of Christmas and even the eggs in a XII . ( There are also 12 signs of the zodiac , 12 god of Olympus , 12 labors of Hercules , 12 tribes of Israel and12 Apostle of Jesus . )
4 . Whatever the reason , fear of 13 has spread far and wide of the mark : Hotels and hospitals often skip the 13th floor , and even airports quietly omit gate 13 sometimes .
5 . The next twelvemonth in which we ’ll have three Friday the 13ths is 2015 . They ’ll fall down in February , March and November .
6 . If you think yourFriday the 13this likely to be bad , be glad you are n’t a fourteenth - centuryKnight Templar . On Oct. 13 , 1307 , officers of King Philip IV of France raided the place of thousands of these campaign warrior , imprisoning them on cathexis of illegal activity . Though the charges were n’t proven , more than a hundred died of horrendous torture , according to " Tales of the Knights Templar " ( Warner Books , 1995 ) .
7 . Fittingly , conductor of psychological thrillersAlfred Hitchcockwas born on the 13th — Friday , Aug. 13 , 1999 , would have been his centesimal birthday . Perhaps aptly title " turn 13 , " a picture that was supposed to be Hitchcock ’s directorial debut never made it past the first few scenes and was keep out down due to financial problems . He allegedly sound out the film was n’t very interesting . ( Meanwhile , Fidel Castro was born on Friday the 13th , in August 1926 . )
8 . Why does the Friday the 13th superstition stick so unwaveringly in our minds ? According to Thomas Gilovich , who chairs the department of psychology at Cornell University , our head are almost too good at making associations .
" If anything bad bump to you on Friday the 13th , the two will be eternally associated in your mind , and all those uneventful days in which the 13th devolve on a Friday will be brush aside , " Gilovich said in a statement . [ 13 Superstitions & Traditions explicate ]
9 . For pagans , 13 is in reality a favorable number . It corresponds with the numeral of full moons in a year .
10 . President Franklin D. Roosevelt is said to have avoided traveling on the 13th day of any month , and would never host 13 guests at a repast . Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic , with an abnormal fear of the number 13 .
11 . Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party . A friend warned him not to go . " It was bad luck , " Twain afterward assure the friend . " They only had food for 12 . " Superstitious diner in Paris can hire a quatorzieme , or professional fourteenth Edgar Guest . [ 13 Odd Occurrences on Friday the 13th ]
12 . Stock broker and author Thomas W. Lawson , in his 1907 novel " Friday the Thirteenth , " write of a stockbroker ’s endeavor to take down Wall Street on the unluckiest Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of the month . Reportedly , stock brokers after this were as unlikely to buy or betray descent on this doomed day as they were to walk under a run , according to write up of a 1925 New York Times clause .
13 . Thisfear of Friday the 13thcan be serious business organization , according to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville , N.C. , which , among other affair , offers therapy to help people overcome their fear of the freaky friday . Their idea intimate hundred of millions of dollar bill , up to $ 900 million are lose due to mass ’s veneration of fly or doing the business as common that day , though that issue is n’t support up with other estimate .
