Today is Friday 13th and you’ve probably already heard at least one bad joke about all the bad omens surrounding this day. We all know it’s an unlucky day, we’ve all seen or at least know the plot of the famous horror movie franchise, but most people don’t really know the origins of this superstition that has become pretty much a global thing. Let’s go through the many theories about this day of bad luck.
To start with, for many Western cultures, the number is associated with chaos because it follows the number 12, often understood as completeness. There are, for instance, 12 months in a year, 12 zodiac signs; the all-mighty Hercules had to complete 12 tasks; there are also 12 main gods in the Olympus, and also 12 tribes of Israel, and the list could go on and on.
Old Testament
If you go back to the Old Testament, you’ll find that Friday is often considered a doomed day in many of their origin stories. It’s said Eve gave Adam the forbidden fruit on a Friday, while Cain killed his brother also on that day. If you go to the Christian tradition, and the New Testament, you’ll find that Jesus was also crucified on a Friday.
Code of Hammurabi
It’s also believed that the contempt against 13, or better said the fear of the number, can be traced back to the ancient Code of Hammurabi, one of the most ancient law treaties in history. As a matter of fact, the numbered treaty skips from the 12th law to the 14th. So, though it’s probably an error, a lot of superstitious people have pointed out it was skipped for a dark reason.
The Last Supper
We already saw the alleged connection between Jesus and the bad luck date, but there’s even more. One of the strongest theories regarding Friday 13th has to do with the Last Supper and its attendees. As we know, Jesus had 12 disciples, making them a group of thirteen. Had the treacherous Judas Iscariot not being a part of the group, they would’ve been the perfect 12. The fact that the 13th member betrayed the son of God is enough to associate the number with something bad. Now, it’s important to mention there’s no trace of this theory before the nineteenth century.
The Massacre of the Templars
You probably remember this one from The Da Vinci Code. The Knights Templar had obtained a huge fortune from their crusades and Rome’s blessing, but by the fourteenth century, they became more powerful than most kings in Europe and even Rome. So, on Friday 13th, in October 1307, King Philip IV arrested hundreds of knights accused of heresy. Most of them died at the stake. Remember how the Last Supper theory came out in the nineteenth century? Well, turns out this one is even more recent since there’s no document proving its existence until the early twentieth century.
There’s no way to prove or deny anything about these theories or even to say if the date is actually of bad luck or not. What we can say is that each culture and tradition has its own set of superstitions and stories that grow in the collective imagination and last for decades or even centuries. For many, Friday 13th is the unlucky day; for Latinos, it’s not Friday, it’s Tuesday; and for Italians, it’s Friday 17th. I guess it’s just a matter of history, coincidences, or just beliefs.
