How Did We Come To Be So Cautious Of Friday 13th?

Has anything terrible ever happened to you on Friday 13th? Hopefully not, but you're probably still a little more cautious than usual.

Well it looks like it's with good reason because In 1993, scientists found that there is a general increase in hospital admissions on Friday 13th.

Is that because people get super nervous when they're doing something like using a power tool and end up doing dumb shit? Who knows, but there are other reasons we fear Friday 13th, and the number 13 in general.

Here's a rundown of them:

• Biblical Origins: Some historians have claimed it was the day on which Eve bit the apple from the Tree of Knowledge and we all know how that panned out. Also it was supposedly the day the great flood began.
• The Last Supper: At Jesus Christ's last supper, there were thirteen people around the table, counting Christ and the twelve apostles. Some believe this is unlucky because the thirteenth disciple was Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Christ.
  

• Knights Templar: On Friday 13 October, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of the Knights Templar, most of the knights were tortured into giving false confessions and then burned at the stake.
• Fear Has A Name: Paraskevidekatriaphobia - from the Greek words paraskeví (meaning 'Friday'), and dekatreís (meaning 'thirteen'). The fear of the number 13 itself is called triskaidekaphobia.

Throughout history a few events have occurred on Friday 13th:

• Tupac Shakur died of his wounds on Friday September 13, 1996, six days after being shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting in Vegas.
• The Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground on Friday 13th January, 2012, off the coast of Western Italy. 30 people died in the tragedy.

• On Friday 13th October, 1972, a Chilean Air force plane 'disappeared' over the Andes, 16 survivors turned up two months later. They had been forced to eat dead passengers in order to survive.
• In 2010, lightning struck a 13-year-old boy from Suffolk on Friday 13th at 13:13. A series of unfortunate events.

And of course it spawned a series of horror films ranging from fantastic to utterly fucking dreadful.

Words by Matthew Cooper

Matthew Cooper

Follow me on Twitter @c00pasaurus for sad short stories about attractive strangers I never spoke to on public transport.