Speaker 1: Hey, brain stuff, I'm Christian Sager here to tell you
Speaker 1: why Friday is considered unlikely because in North America and Europe,
Speaker 1: a significant proportion of the population behaves very strangely on Friday.
Speaker 1: Some people won't fly in airplanes, host parties, apply for jobs,
Speaker 1: get married, or even start new projects. In fact, in
Speaker 1: the United States, roughly eight percent of the population is
Speaker 1: afraid of Friday, which is a condition known as and
Speaker 1: say it with me here paraskeva deca tree a phobia.
Speaker 1: That's right, it's actually a combination of two separate fears.
Speaker 1: We have a fear of the number thirteen that's called triscadecaphobia,
Speaker 1: and a fear of Friday's Anyways, the most familiar source
Speaker 1: of both of these phobias is actually Christian theology. Thirteen
Speaker 1: is significant to Christians because it is the number of
Speaker 1: people who were present at the last sub birth. Because
Speaker 1: you've got Jesus and his twelve apostles, and then Judas,
Speaker 1: the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was allegedly the thirteenth member
Speaker 1: of the party to arrive. Maybe Judas was just being
Speaker 1: fashionably late, but Christians have traditionally been wary of Fridays
Speaker 1: because they also think that Jesus was crucified on a Friday.
Speaker 1: And some theologians think that Adam and Eve eight from
Speaker 1: the forbidden Fruit on a Friday. So what's going on here?
Speaker 1: Why are all the worst events in the Bible happening
Speaker 1: on Friday, including the Great Flood? Yes, supposedly Noah and
Speaker 1: his arc also set sail on a Friday as Friday,
Speaker 1: God's least favorite day. Because of all of this, in
Speaker 1: the past, many Christians would never begin any new project
Speaker 1: or trip on a Friday, for fear that the endeavor
Speaker 1: would be doomed from the start. Now, sailors were particularly
Speaker 1: superstitious in this regard, often refusing to ship out to
Speaker 1: sea on a Friday. But according to nautical legend, in
Speaker 1: the eighteenth century, the British Navy commissioned a ship called
Speaker 1: the Hmis Friday. In order to quell the superstition. The
Speaker 1: navy selected the crew on a Friday, they launched the
Speaker 1: ship on a Friday. They even selected a man named
Speaker 1: James Friday as the ship's captain, and then one Friday
Speaker 1: morning that ship set sail, but as bad luck would
Speaker 1: have it, it disappeared. Now, some historians also think they
Speaker 1: can trace Christian distrust of Friday to the Church's overall
Speaker 1: opposition to pagan religions, because did you know this Friday
Speaker 1: is named after Frigg, the Norris goddess of love and sex,
Speaker 1: and now this strong female figure, these historians claim, posed
Speaker 1: a threat to the male dominated Christianity. So to fight
Speaker 1: her influence, the Christian Church characterized her as a witch,
Speaker 1: vilifying the day after her. This characterization may have also
Speaker 1: played a part of the fear of the number thirteen
Speaker 1: trisca decaphobia. Remember that word I did and now I
Speaker 1: can say it correctly. It was said that frig would
Speaker 1: often join a convent of witches, normally a group of twelve,
Speaker 1: bringing the total number to thirteen, and a similar Christian
Speaker 1: tradition holds that thirteen is unholy because it signifies the
Speaker 1: gathering of twelve witches and the devil. Some trace the
Speaker 1: infamy of the number thirteen also back to ancient Norris culture.
Speaker 1: In Norris mythology, the beloved hero Balder was killed at
Speaker 1: a banquet by the malevolent god Loki. You know Tom
Speaker 1: Hittleston who crashed the party of you guessed it? Twelve
Speaker 1: people bringing the group to thirteen, and this story, plus
Speaker 1: the story of the Last Supper, led to one of
Speaker 1: the most entrenched connotations of the number thirteen. You should
Speaker 1: never sit down to a meal at a group of thirteen.
Speaker 1: Another significant part of the Friday the thirteenth legend is
Speaker 1: particularly bad in This was a Friday the thirteenth that
Speaker 1: occurred in the Middle Ages. On a Friday in thirteen
Speaker 1: o six, King Philip of France burned the revered nights
Speaker 1: of Templar at the stake, marking the day as an
Speaker 1: occasion of evil. Now these days, some people come to
Speaker 1: fear Friday because of misfortune they've experienced on that day
Speaker 1: in the past. So if you get in a car
Speaker 1: wreck on Friday the thirteenth or lose your wallet on
Speaker 1: that day, then that superstition is bound to stick with
Speaker 1: you if you think about it. Though terrible things horrible
Speaker 1: things are just mundane things like spilling coffee on your lap,
Speaker 1: or losing your wallet or losing your cell phone. This
Speaker 1: stuff happens all the time, but if you're looking bad
Speaker 1: luck on Friday, you'll probably find it. Jason Borhes check
Speaker 1: out the Brainsuff channel on YouTube and for more on this,
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Visit how stuff works dot com.