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Speaker 1: and sign up today. Welcome to brain Stuff from house

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com where smart happens. Hi, I'm Marshall

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Speaker 1: Brain with today's question, why is it considered unlucky when

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Speaker 1: the thirteenth day in the month lands on a Friday?

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Speaker 1: In North America and Europe, a significant portion of the

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Speaker 1: population behaves very strangely on Friday. They won't fly in airplanes,

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Speaker 1: host a party, apply for a job, get married, or

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Speaker 1: even start a new project. Some people won't come into work.

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Speaker 1: In the United States, roughly eight percent of the population

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Speaker 1: is afraid or Friday. Friday as we know it has

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Speaker 1: its roots in many traditions and cultures. The superstitions surrounding

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Speaker 1: Friday the thirteenth is actually a combination of two separate fears,

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Speaker 1: the fear of the number thirteen and the fear of Fridays.

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Speaker 1: The most familiar source of both these phobias is Christian theology.

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Speaker 1: Thirteen is significant to Christians because it's the number of

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Speaker 1: people who were present at the Last Supper Jesus plus

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Speaker 1: his twelve apostles. Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was

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Speaker 1: the thirteenth member of the party to arrive. Christians have

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Speaker 1: traditionally been wary of Fridays as well, because Jesus was

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Speaker 1: crucified on a Friday. In addition to that, some theologians

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Speaker 1: hold that Adam and Eve eight from the Forbidden Fruit

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Speaker 1: on a Friday, and that the Great Flood began on

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Speaker 1: a Friday. In the past, many Christians would never begin

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Speaker 1: any new project or trip on a Friday, for fear

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Speaker 1: that the endeavor would be doomed from the start. Sailors

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Speaker 1: were particularly super issius in this regard, often refusing to

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Speaker 1: ship out on a Friday. According to legend, in the

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Speaker 1: eighteenth century, the British Navy commissioned a ship called the

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Speaker 1: HMS Friday in order to quell this very superstition. The

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Speaker 1: Navy selected the crew on a Friday, They launched the

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Speaker 1: ship on a Friday, and even selected a man named

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Speaker 1: James Friday as the ship's captain. Then one Friday morning,

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Speaker 1: the ship set off on its maiden voyage and disappeared forever. Don't,

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Speaker 1: don't duh, and let's not even get started on Apollo thirteen.

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Speaker 1: Some historians trace the Christian distrust of Fridays to the

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Speaker 1: Church's overall opposition to pagan religions. Friday is named after Frigg,

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Speaker 1: the Norse goddess of love and sex. This strong female figure,

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Speaker 1: these historians claim, posed a threat to male dominated Christianity.

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Speaker 1: To fight her influence, the Christian Church characterized her as

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Speaker 1: a witch, vilifying the day named after her. This characterization

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Speaker 1: may also have played a part in the fear of

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Speaker 1: the number thirteen. It was said that Frigg would often

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Speaker 1: join a covid of witches, normally a group of twelve,

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Speaker 1: bringing the total to thirteen. A similar Christian tradition holds

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Speaker 1: that thirteen is unholy because it signifies the gathering of twelve,

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Speaker 1: which is in the devil. Some trace the infamy of

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Speaker 1: the number thirteen back to ancient Norse culture. In Norse mythology,

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Speaker 1: the beloved herold Balder was killed at a banquet by

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Speaker 1: the malevolent god Loki, who crashed the party of twelve,

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Speaker 1: bringing the group to thirteen. This story, as well as

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Speaker 1: the story of the Last Supper, led to one of

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Speaker 1: the most entrenched connotations of the number thirteen. You should

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Speaker 1: never sit down to a meal in a group of thirteen.

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Speaker 1: Another significant part of the Friday the thirteenth legend is

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Speaker 1: a particularly bad Friday the thirteenth that occurred in the

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Speaker 1: Middle Ages. On a Friday the thirteenth in thirteen o six,

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Speaker 1: King Philip of France burned the re Veared Nights templar

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Speaker 1: at the Stake, marking the occasion as a day of evil.

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Speaker 1: Some people come to fear Friday because of misfortune they've

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Speaker 1: experienced on that day in the past. If you get

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Speaker 1: in a car wreck on one Friday or lose your wallet,

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Speaker 1: that day is bound to stay with you. But if

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Speaker 1: you think about it, bad things happen all the time.

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Speaker 1: So if you're looking for bad luck on Friday, you'll

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Speaker 1: probably find it, but you can just as easily find

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Speaker 1: it on any other day as well. For more on

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Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Because it has staff

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Speaker 1: works dot com, streaming TV shows and movies directly to

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Speaker 1: you can instantly watch TV and movies on your PC, mac,

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Speaker 1: mobile device, or right on your television. Get a free

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Speaker 1: thirty day trial membership. Go to Netflix dot com slash

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