WEBVTT - Why Are We Afraid of Friday the 13th? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.520 Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:09.880 brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam. Here, let's look at this 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:13.720 objectively for a second. In order to organize time, human 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.960 beings created calendars. As part of today's dominant calendar system, 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.800 every year is divided into twelve periods called months, consisting 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.000 of roughly thirty days each. All days are also grouped 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.040 in two sets of seven called weeks, and in Europe. 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.440 In the America's a significant chunk of the population suspects 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.440 that bad things will happen whenever the thirteenth day of 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:38.560 a month occurs on the day of the week called Friday. 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:42.400 Like many human beliefs, the fear of the number thirteen, 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.599 which is triskyde decaphobia, or of Friday the thirteenth, known 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:51.640 as paris kevi decca triophobia, isn't exactly grounded in scientific logic. 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.000 But the really strange thing is that most people who 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.000 believe the day is unlucky offered no explanation at all, 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:02.720 logical or illogical. As with most superstitions, people fear Friday 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.440 the thirteenth for its own sake, without any need for 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:10.759 background information. The superstition does have deep compelling roots, though 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:13.640 and those origins help explain why the belief is so 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:18.240 widespread today. The fear of Friday the thirteenth stems from 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.000 two separate fears, the fear of the number thirteen and 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:24.880 the fear of Fridays. Both have deep roots in Western culture, 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:29.240 and most notably in Christian theology. The number thirteen is 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:31.920 significant therein because it's the number of people who were 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:36.000 present at the Last Supper Jesus and his twelve apostles. Judas, 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.959 the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the thirteenth member of 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:43.080 the party to arrive. Friday has had a negative connotation 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:47.039 because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Additionally, some theologians 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.400 hold that Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden Fruit 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:51.680 on a Friday, and that the Great Flood began on 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.200 a Friday. In the past, some Christians would avoid beginning 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:57.680 any new project or trip on a Friday, fearing that 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.240 they would be doomed from the start. The sailors were 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.560 particularly superstitious in this regard, often refusing to ship out 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.640 on a Friday, and supposedly President Franklin D. Roosevelt was 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:12.440 among these ranks. Some historians suggest that The Christian distrust 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.240 of Friday's is actually linked to the early Catholic Church's 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:19.320 overall suppression of pagan religions and of women. In the 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.760 Roman calendar, Friday was devoted to Venus, the goddess of love. 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:25.560 When the Norse adapted the calendar, they named the day 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:29.600 after Frigg or Freya, Norse goddesses connected to love and sex. 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:32.880 The story goes that both of these strong female figures 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:36.359 once posed a threat to male dominated Christianity, so the 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:41.040 Christian Church vilified the day named after them. This characterization 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:42.919 may also have played a part in the fear of 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.839 the number thirteen. It was said that Frigg would often 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.560 join a coven of witches, normally a group of twelve, 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.720 bringing the total to thirteen. This idea may have originated 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.760 with the Christian Church itself, it's impossible to verify the 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.880 exact origins of most folklore. A similar Christian legend holds 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.919 thirteen is unholy because it signifies the gathering of twelve 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.600 witches and the devil. The number thirteen could also have 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.240 been considered pagan because they're thirteen months in the pagan 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.880 Lunar calendar. The Lunar calendar also corresponds to the human 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:17.160 menstrual cycle, connecting the number again to women. But there 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:19.919 are other traditions that link the number thirteen and Friday 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:24.640 thirteenth to unluckiness. In Norse mythology, the beloved hero Balder 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.280 was killed at a banquet by the mischievous god Loki, 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.639 who crashed the party of twelve, bringing the group to thirteen. 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.760 This story, as well as the story of the Last Supper, 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.240 led to one of the most entrenched thirteen related beliefs 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.480 that you should never sit down to a meal in 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.320 a group of thirteen. Another significant piece of the legend 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.880 is a particularly bad Friday the thirteenth that occurred in 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.080 the Middle Ages. On a Friday the thirteenth in thirteen 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.600 o six, King Philip of France arrested some of the 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:55.400 revered knights Templar and began torturing them, marking the occasion 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:59.240 as a day of evil. Both Friday and the number 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.600 thirteen were one closely associated with capital punishment. In British tradition, 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.920 Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:11.440 were supposedly thirteen steps leading up to the noose. There 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:13.720 are rumors of a secret society starting in the late 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.920 eighteen hundreds at William and Mary called the thirteens, said 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.120 to be groups of thirteen students who would meet in 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.719 defiance of the superstition. The date was first enshrined in 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.680 pop culture in nineteen o seven, when one Thomas Lawson 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.920 wrote a novel called Friday Thirteenth about a stockbroker who 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:33.159 purposefully crashes the stock market on that day. Around the 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.839 same time, skyscrapers going up would often omit a thirteenth floor, 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.760 of practice that continues today. People point to the trials 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.080 and tribulations faced by the astronauts of the Apollo thirteen mission, 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:47.760 and of course, the wildly popular Friday the Thirteenth horror 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.400 franchise about sometimes villain Jason Vorhees and Camp Crystal Lake 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:56.800 further spread this ancient meme. Ultimately, the complex folklore of 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.680 Friday the thirteenth doesn't have much to do with people's 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.240 fears today. The fear has much more to do with 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.760 personal experience. People learn at a young age that Friday 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.400 the thirteenth is supposed to be unlucky for whatever reason, 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.400 and then they look for evidence that the legend is true. 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.320 Evidence isn't hard to come by. Of course, if you 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.680 get in a car wreck on one Friday thirteenth, or 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.600 lose your wallet or even spill your coffee, that day 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:23.080 will probably stay with you. But if you think about it, 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.400 bad things, big and small happen all the time. If 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:29.840 you're looking for bad luck on Friday, you'll probably find it, 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.200 And perhaps unluckily, the thirteenth of a month falling on 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.839 a Friday isn't particularly uncommon. It's actually one of the 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:42.240 twenty eight most common dates on the calendar. Even if 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:46.320 you don't take drastic precautions every Friday, are you totally 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.279 immune to the superstition? Given the choice, would you get married, 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:52.440 start a new job, or close on a house on 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.200 a Friday thirteenth? Most Americans wouldn't, even though they don't 0:05:56.200 --> 0:06:03.960 put much stock in the idea. Today's episode was written 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.600 by Tom Harris and produced by Tyler Clang. For more 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:08.680 on this and lots of other curious topics, visit how 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.280 stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:13.960 Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.680 the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:17.640 to your favorite shows.