It is Friday the 13th, a day considered by some to be the unluckiest day of the year. Its arrival surely brings with it an element of relief for those who experience friggatriskaidekaphobia, also known as fear of Friday the 13th, as this is the first and only one in 2025. Sometimes there can be as many as three in a year.
Hotels are known to skip 13 when numbering rooms or floors, while some airlines don’t feature a 13th row owing to superstition surrounding the number 13. But are there any grounds for the dread the date imposes every time it rolls around? Well, some historic events support the theory. Here are five:
- At Jesus’s last supper there were 13 people around the table: 12 disciples and him. Allegedly, Judas Iscariot was the 13th person to arrive. Then, in the early hours of Friday morning, he betrayed Jesus by kissing him on the cheek and calling him Master to identify him to the large crowd, before he was arrested and crucified on what is known as Good Friday to Christians.
- On Friday the 13th in 1307, King Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of Catholic crusaders known as the Knights Templar. The knights were charged with moral and financial corruption and heresy for worshipping false idols. After being tortured into making false confessions, many of the men were imprisoned or burned at the stake.
- In Norse mythology, a banquet was held for 12 gods in Valhalla, which Loki, the god of mischief, gatecrashed, making him the 13th person at the feast. Mayhem ensued when Loki tricked the blind god, Hod, into killing his own brother Balder, the god of happiness and joy.
- On December 13th, 1916, during the first World War, avalanches killed thousands of Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers based in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. As a result, the day became known as White Friday.
- On Friday, October 13th in 1972, a plane carrying 45 passengers and crew crashed into the Andes Mountains in Argentina. On board were 19 members of the Uruguayan Old Christians rugby union team, with families, supporters and friends. Eighteen people died and the remaining 27 who lived resorted to eating the dead passengers to survive. An avalanche killed eight more people some weeks later. The 16 survivors were not rescued until December. The film, Alive, retelling the story of their survival was made in 1993.
How does the rest of the world feel about Friday the 13th?
In Spanish-speaking countries, people feel superstitious about Tuesday the 13th; in Italy, Friday the 17th is seen as a day of misfortune.
Are there some who consider it lucky?
For many, it is just another day. In fact pop artist Taylor Swift celebrates the number 13 and considers it to be lucky, having been born on December 13th, 1989, and turned 13 on Friday the 13th. Swift’s first album went gold in 13 weeks and her first number one song had a 13-second introduction.
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She is known for writing the number 13 on the back of her hand before her live shows – an action that many Swifties copied when she performed the global Eras Tour last year.
Wishing you all an uneventful Friday the 13th – and for those of you who suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia, don’t worry, there won’t be another until February 2026.
