Today is Friday the 13th of November, and I became curious about why this day is synonymous with bad luck. It certainly goes back a lot further than the horror movies or American Horror Story’s latest season, where the number thirteen is highlighted. So I did a little research on both Friday the 13th and the number thirteen. And here is what I learned:

Probably one of the first instances where the number thirteen became associated with bad luck was in Norse mythology, when the God Loki showed up uninvited to a banquet at Valhalla as the 13th guest and tricked Hod into killing his brother, Baldr.
Most people know that Judas, who betrayed Jesus Christ, was the 13th guest at the Last Supper, the night before they crucified Jesus. And of course, Jesus was crucified on a Friday to add to the combination of Friday and 13, and you have a weak historical link, which seems a bit antithetical since Christians celebrate “Good Friday.” Yeah, yeah, he died for our sins, but what was so good about him being crucified?
Another Christian link to Friday being bad luck is the belief that Eve gave Adam the apple on a Friday. Additionally, Cain killed Abel on a Friday.
Fast forward several hundred years, and we have the fateful true combination of Friday and thirteen when, on Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest, torture, and execution of hundreds of the Knights Templar. This is probably the true origin of Friday the 13th being considered bad luck.
However, it would take another six hundred years for it to show up in more contemporary literature with a novel titled Friday, the Thirteenth, by Thomas William, about a Wall Street broker who exploits superstitions about the date to crash the stock market. But this wasn’t actually the first time these superstitions were written about. That occurred in 19th-century France, when an article published in 1834 in the French literary magazine Revue de Paris by Italian author Marquis de Salvo wrote about a Sicilian count who killed his daughter on Friday the 13th. In the article, the author connected the two, stating, “It is always Fridays and the number 13 that bring bad luck!” In America, Evidence of Friday the 13th being considered unlucky dates back to the late 19th century, when William Fowler, a Union captain during the Civil War, founded the Thirteen Club. The club was an exclusive society that formed specifically to break superstitious taboos about luck. The society consisted of thirteen members (including Fowler) who gathered for a thirteen-course meal on the thirteenth day of each month in room thirteen of the Knickerbocker Cottage, in New York City. The inaugural meeting was held on a Friday in 1882.
As highlighted in the recent season of American Horror Story, there is a real-life condition called paraskevidekatriaphobia which combines three Greek words: Paraskevi (Friday); triskaideka (thirteen), and phobos (fear). The condition describes a paralyzing fear individuals experience relating to the date. Alternatively, the fear is sometimes diagnosed as friggatriskaidekaphobia, combining Frigg, the Norse goddess after whom Friday is named, with the term triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13. Yup, bringing it back to Norse mythology, which makes me think the true origin is the first mention of thirteen being bad luck.

Personally, I’ve never believed that Friday the 13th was a day for bad luck because plenty of times the day has passed without any indication of catastrophe. Let’s hope that continues! However, it might be an interesting story to create a character with triskaidekaphobia who isn’t Satan’s son, as showcased in the recent American Horror Story season, but instead a descendant of Lilith or Eve! Surely, it can’t be quirkier than my other novels, which, by the way, you can check out by clicking on the links below! Please don’t forget my latest release, Blind Faith, which has a main character with prosopagnosia (face blindness)…a very unusual condition.