Today isn’t Friday, and it isn’t the 13th. It’s actually Monday, and it’s the sixteenth. But we had a Friday the 13th just a few days ago. I hope you all survived it.
Around the world, superstitions surround Friday the 13th. Myth? Truth? Only a truly intelligent cat like me – Tiger Lily – would know for certain. But I’m happy to tell you everything I learned about the subject.
Here’s a fun fact. We get a Friday the 13th in any month that begins on a Sunday. And yep, wouldn’t you know it, the first day of this month was a Sunday!
Another fun fact is that we have at least one every year, sometimes as many as three. We’ve had two in 2020, and this year, two is more than plenty.
Last fun fact: Triskaidekaphobia is the extreme superstition regarding the number thirteen. Friggatriskaidekaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th. This is important enough that there are two words for it!
Here are more important phobias. Ailurophobia means you have an intense fear of cats. If you have this phobia, it will cause you to panic when you’re around cats or when you think about them. Sometimes, it’s called elurophobia, gatophobia, or felinophobia. So cats are more important than Friday the 13th. We have four words.
Back to the topic at hand.
Origins of the Superstition
From Wikipedia comes a few probable beginnings of the superstition. (I have to say that my Mom – the author of my books – would never allow her college students to reference Wikipedia in their research papers. But I’m not a student. I’m a cat. )
I have included only three probable beginnings. Otherwise, we’d be here all day!
The Norse Myth: There were these twelve gods having dinner at this place called Valhalla. This guy named Loki – he’s in the Thor and Avenger movies – wasn’t invited. He went anyway, and that made thirteen. He arranged for this one god to shoot another god with an arrow that had been tipped in mistletoe. That’s supposed to be a love plant. Anyway, apparently it’s poison to gods, and the one that got hit died. The whole world got dark. It was a bad, bad, very bad, unlucky day. So there you have it. Now those Norse folks think the number thirteen is unlucky.
The Middle Ages and The Last Supper: Now I know you’re going to say that The Last Supper wasn’t in the Middle Ages. No. It was right at the cusp of BC and AD, way before the Middle Ages. Anyway, once we got to those times, lots of hundreds of years later, people started to talk about there being thirteen people in what they called the Upper Room. And people of several major religions know what happened after that. Oh, and they were saying that it was on the “13th of Nisan Maundy Thursday,” which is the day before Friday. So you have two thirteens, both right before a Friday. But then they say while this talk started to happen in the Middle Ages, it didn’t really become a “thing” until the nineteen century. This one was very confusing to me.
The Knights Templar: There were these guys called The Knights Templar. They were military guys, Catholic, and they started up in the early eleven hundreds. They were at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – so we’re right back there in the place of the Upper Room – I caught that – but then they moved to the Vatican (that’s in Rome) after about eighteen or nineteen years. They stayed there, but this King of France didn’t like them, and in the early thirteen hundreds he had them all arrested. It was Friday, October 13, 1307. But even though it happened back then, people didn’t start thinking it was particularly unlucky until sometime in the twentieth century.
Facts, Fun And Otherwise
I like looking up fun stuff. This website provided thirteen (13) facts about Friday the 13th. There’s something to be said about symmetry. Some of them are boring, so I offer only a few.
Fears About The Day Are Common
Experts say that friggatriskaidekaphobia (there’s that word again) affects millions of people. Some businesses, especially airlines, lose business and money on Friday the 13th. It must be as bad as a full moon. I wonder if anyone has ever investigated days that are Friday the 13th and full moon days at the same time?
Anyway, that other word, triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number thirteen, is even more widespread. Lots of tall buildings skip the 13th floor, and lots of airports don’t have a gate number thirteen. There are other silly things around the world, like not having thirteen guests, etc. Silly. Right?
Patterns Repeat In The Calendar
If you like to investigate your calendar – who does that? – here are some rules.
- If a common year begins on a Thursday, the months of February, March and November will have a Friday the 13th. This will happen eleven times in this century.
- This February-March-November pattern repeats in a 28-year cycle. This century, the pattern began in 2009, happened again in 2015 (6 years), and will happen again in 2026 (11 years) and 2037 (11 years). If you add those up, that makes 28 years. Phew! I got a brain workout on that one! Oh, the next one is six years later, in 2043.
- I think I already said that if the first day of the month is a Sunday, then you’ll have a Friday the 13th. That’s easier for someone like me to figure out.
Alfred Hitchcock Was Born On The 13th
Here is a direct quote from the website. It’s pretty interesting. “The master of suspense was born on August 13, 1899, so Friday, August 13, 1999, would have been his 100th birthday. He made his directorial debut in 1922 with a movie called Number 13. Unfortunately, the film was doomed from the start and never got off the ground due to financial troubles.” (Cue suspenseful music here….)
One Country Uses The Day To Raise Safety And Accident Awareness
If you live in Finland, one Friday the 13th each year – it’s easy to choose if there is only one that year – is dedicated to National Accident Day. They use this day to raise awareness of safety at home, at work, and on the road.
Moving right along, I checked out another website.
Finances, Heavy Metal, Cats And Presidents
This website has several fun facts.
Stockbrokers Become Nervous
On most Friday the 13ths, stocks actually rise, but those folks trading money are a little wary of those days if they happen in October. On those days, there is an average drop of about 0.5%. On Friday, October 13, 1989, it went down 6.1%. That’s what’s known as a mini-crash. (It made the news.)
Heavy Metal Was Born On A Friday The 13th
According to people really into heavy metal, this genre was born on Friday, February 13, 1970, with the release of an album by Black Sabbath. Titled Black Sabbath. Some people would argue that Steppenwolf coined the term in 1968 with “Born To Be Wild,” but metalheads point to the first chords of the opening track of the first album of Black Sabbath. Horns up. (I copied that from the website.)
Meanwhile, In French Lick, Indiana…
These people must really be superstitious. In the 1930s and 40s, the town decreed – that means they ordered – that all black cats had to wear a bell around their neck every Friday the 13th. My sister Little Socks would be so mad!!! We live in Indiana, but luckily, we don’t live in a town that requires Little Socks to bell up.
Presidents Club
There was this Civil War veteran, Captain William Fowler, who fought in 13 Civil War battles. He started a club in 1882 to spit in the face of superstition! Members met on the 13th of the month, at 13 past the hour, and they sat 13 at a dining table. For good measure, they put open umbrellas in the dining hall and they broke glass, inviting all kinds of madness and mayhem to the meeting. Five Presidents became honorary members of The Thirteen Club: I did a little Wikipedia surfing to see if anything ill befell them. (I liked that little turn of phrase.) (I’ll say it again: to see if anything ill befell them.)
- Chester Arthur became President because he was the Vice President to a President that was assassinated (James Garfield). So, it wasn’t unlucky for him, but, geez.
- Grover Cleveland. Well. As his second administration began, disaster hit in the form of the Panic of 1893. It produced a severe financial depression from which the country was unable to recover while he remained President.
- Benjamin Harrison. Nothing particularly unlucky happened to him. In fact, he may have gotten really lucky. He served after Grover Cleveland’s first term and was defeated by Cleveland, which, well, see above. Bummer. Harrison missed the depression by a hair. Maybe he caused it, I don’t know. I’m just a cat.
- William McKinley was assassinated. I don’t think that’s very lucky.
- Theodore Roosevelt was one of those great Presidents. Hanging around with the thirteen folks didn’t seem to do him any harm.
In Closing
Well, if you are not yet decided if a Friday the 13th is something to fear, let me tell you about this. In 2029 – pretty soon in human years – an asteroid is going to come close to Earth.
Yikes!
According to the folks who look through telescopes, we’ll be fine. But still, put this date in your calendar: April 13, 2029. We’ll get a really good look at the asteroid known as 99942, Apophis (also known as 2004 MN4). It’s about 320 meters wide and would make a pretty big hole if it hit us.
When they found this rock in 2004, astronomers gave it a one-in-sixty chance of colliding with Earth, but since then, they say it will miss us entirely.
Here are some other interesting statistics:
- It will cruise past us at 18,600 miles above ground. (Geosynchronous satellites – what in the world are they? – are 22,300 miles above us.)
- It will be visible in parts of Asia, Africa and Europe.
- Nothing like this will happen for another 1,000 years or so.