Friday 13th

[:Ace:]

Does anybody know why Friday 13th is deemed to be so unlucky?

[BourneStupid]

In Christianity Friday is considered unlucky because Christ was crucified on Friday, and 13 unlucky because that was the number at the Last Supper. Friday 13 is considered doubly unlucky. However there are older similar stories - eg in Viking legend Loki intruded at a feast in Valhalla and made the number at table 13, and Balder was killed.

[RogerWilco]

Here in Greece (an Orthodox Christian country) TUESDAY 13th is considered unlucky.

[johnboy_75]

Quite interestingly.....More than 80 percent of high-rises lack a 13th floor.

Many airports skip the 13th gate.

Airplanes have no 13th aisle.

Hospitals and hotels regularly have no room number 13.

Italians omit the number 13 from their national lottery.

On streets in Florence, Italy, the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half.

Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue

In France, socialites known as the quatorziens (fourteeners) once made themselves available as 14th guests to keep a dinner party from an unlucky fate.

Many Paraskevidekatriaphobics, as those who fear the unlucky integer are known, point to the ill-fated mission to the moon, Apollo 13.

If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck . Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names.

[johnboy_75]

the superstition is derived from myths about both Fridays and the number 13.


Fridays, for example, are hailed as a particularly significant day in the Christian tradition. Obviously, there is Good Friday, the day Jesus Christ was crucified. But according to Christian lore, Adam and Eve also supposedly ate the forbidden fruit on a Friday, the Great Flood started on a Friday, the builders of the Tower of Babel were tongue-tied on a Friday and the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday.

Both the Hindus and Vikings reportedly had a myth in which 12 gods were invited to a gathering and Loki, the god of mischief, crashed the party and incited a riot. Tradition in both cultures holds that 13 people at a dinner party is bad luck and will end in the death of the party-goers.



Following in that vein, the Last Supper in Christian tradition hosted 13 people and one betrayed Christ, resulting in the crucifixion.

[mike b]

The Greek thing about unlucky Tuesday is said to be derived from the fall of Constantinople on a Tuesday in 1453

[netibiza]

Also in Spain it is unlucky Tuesday 13th.

[alec_r]

It is in relation to the execution of the Knights Templar on the Friday the 13th of October 1307. The Knights had originally been set-up to protect travellers of the Christian faith and were sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church. To cut a long story short the Knights became too rich and powerful and were accused of corruption, which ended in them being executed for heresy. From that day on Friday the 13th has been deemed unlucky.

[bumbles]

my husband thinks Friday the 13th is unlucky cos that's the day I was born