Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam. Here, let's look at this
Speaker 1: objectively for a second. In order to organize time, human
Speaker 1: beings created calendars. As part of today's dominant calendar system,
Speaker 1: every year is divided into twelve periods called months, consisting
Speaker 1: of roughly thirty days each. All days are also grouped
Speaker 1: in two sets of seven called weeks, and in Europe.
Speaker 1: In the America's a significant chunk of the population suspects
Speaker 1: that bad things will happen whenever the thirteenth day of
Speaker 1: a month occurs on the day of the week called Friday.
Speaker 1: Like many human beliefs, the fear of the number thirteen,
Speaker 1: which is triskyde decaphobia, or of Friday the thirteenth, known
Speaker 1: as paris kevi decca triophobia, isn't exactly grounded in scientific logic.
Speaker 1: But the really strange thing is that most people who
Speaker 1: believe the day is unlucky offered no explanation at all,
Speaker 1: logical or illogical. As with most superstitions, people fear Friday
Speaker 1: the thirteenth for its own sake, without any need for
Speaker 1: background information. The superstition does have deep compelling roots, though
Speaker 1: and those origins help explain why the belief is so
Speaker 1: widespread today. The fear of Friday the thirteenth stems from
Speaker 1: two separate fears, the fear of the number thirteen and
Speaker 1: the fear of Fridays. Both have deep roots in Western culture,
Speaker 1: and most notably in Christian theology. The number thirteen is
Speaker 1: significant therein because it's the number of people who were
Speaker 1: present at the Last Supper Jesus and his twelve apostles. Judas,
Speaker 1: the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the thirteenth member of
Speaker 1: the party to arrive. Friday has had a negative connotation
Speaker 1: because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Additionally, some theologians
Speaker 1: hold that Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden Fruit
Speaker 1: on a Friday, and that the Great Flood began on
Speaker 1: a Friday. In the past, some Christians would avoid beginning
Speaker 1: any new project or trip on a Friday, fearing that
Speaker 1: they would be doomed from the start. The sailors were
Speaker 1: particularly superstitious in this regard, often refusing to ship out
Speaker 1: on a Friday, and supposedly President Franklin D. Roosevelt was
Speaker 1: among these ranks. Some historians suggest that The Christian distrust
Speaker 1: of Friday's is actually linked to the early Catholic Church's
Speaker 1: overall suppression of pagan religions and of women. In the
Speaker 1: Roman calendar, Friday was devoted to Venus, the goddess of love.
Speaker 1: When the Norse adapted the calendar, they named the day
Speaker 1: after Frigg or Freya, Norse goddesses connected to love and sex.
Speaker 1: The story goes that both of these strong female figures
Speaker 1: once posed a threat to male dominated Christianity, so the
Speaker 1: Christian Church vilified the day named after them. This characterization
Speaker 1: may also have played a part in the fear of
Speaker 1: the number thirteen. It was said that Frigg would often
Speaker 1: join a coven of witches, normally a group of twelve,
Speaker 1: bringing the total to thirteen. This idea may have originated
Speaker 1: with the Christian Church itself, it's impossible to verify the
Speaker 1: exact origins of most folklore. A similar Christian legend holds
Speaker 1: thirteen is unholy because it signifies the gathering of twelve
Speaker 1: witches and the devil. The number thirteen could also have
Speaker 1: been considered pagan because they're thirteen months in the pagan
Speaker 1: Lunar calendar. The Lunar calendar also corresponds to the human
Speaker 1: menstrual cycle, connecting the number again to women. But there
Speaker 1: are other traditions that link the number thirteen and Friday
Speaker 1: thirteenth to unluckiness. In Norse mythology, the beloved hero Balder
Speaker 1: was killed at a banquet by the mischievous god Loki,
Speaker 1: who crashed the party of twelve, bringing the group to thirteen.
Speaker 1: This story, as well as the story of the Last Supper,
Speaker 1: led to one of the most entrenched thirteen related beliefs
Speaker 1: that you should never sit down to a meal in
Speaker 1: a group of thirteen. Another significant piece of the legend
Speaker 1: is a particularly bad Friday the thirteenth that occurred in
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages. On a Friday the thirteenth in thirteen
Speaker 1: o six, King Philip of France arrested some of the
Speaker 1: revered knights Templar and began torturing them, marking the occasion
Speaker 1: as a day of evil. Both Friday and the number
Speaker 1: thirteen were one closely associated with capital punishment. In British tradition,
Speaker 1: Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there
Speaker 1: were supposedly thirteen steps leading up to the noose. There
Speaker 1: are rumors of a secret society starting in the late
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds at William and Mary called the thirteens, said
Speaker 1: to be groups of thirteen students who would meet in
Speaker 1: defiance of the superstition. The date was first enshrined in
Speaker 1: pop culture in nineteen o seven, when one Thomas Lawson
Speaker 1: wrote a novel called Friday Thirteenth about a stockbroker who
Speaker 1: purposefully crashes the stock market on that day. Around the
Speaker 1: same time, skyscrapers going up would often omit a thirteenth floor,
Speaker 1: of practice that continues today. People point to the trials
Speaker 1: and tribulations faced by the astronauts of the Apollo thirteen mission,
Speaker 1: and of course, the wildly popular Friday the Thirteenth horror
Speaker 1: franchise about sometimes villain Jason Vorhees and Camp Crystal Lake
Speaker 1: further spread this ancient meme. Ultimately, the complex folklore of
Speaker 1: Friday the thirteenth doesn't have much to do with people's
Speaker 1: fears today. The fear has much more to do with
Speaker 1: personal experience. People learn at a young age that Friday
Speaker 1: the thirteenth is supposed to be unlucky for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: and then they look for evidence that the legend is true.
Speaker 1: Evidence isn't hard to come by. Of course, if you
Speaker 1: get in a car wreck on one Friday thirteenth, or
Speaker 1: lose your wallet or even spill your coffee, that day
Speaker 1: will probably stay with you. But if you think about it,
Speaker 1: bad things, big and small happen all the time. If
Speaker 1: you're looking for bad luck on Friday, you'll probably find it,
Speaker 1: And perhaps unluckily, the thirteenth of a month falling on
Speaker 1: a Friday isn't particularly uncommon. It's actually one of the
Speaker 1: twenty eight most common dates on the calendar. Even if
Speaker 1: you don't take drastic precautions every Friday, are you totally
Speaker 1: immune to the superstition? Given the choice, would you get married,
Speaker 1: start a new job, or close on a house on
Speaker 1: a Friday thirteenth? Most Americans wouldn't, even though they don't
Speaker 1: put much stock in the idea. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by Tom Harris and produced by Tyler Clang. For more
Speaker 1: on this and lots of other curious topics, visit how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.