Why is Friday the 13th unlucky? A look back at the history of this ominous date

Roots of superstition can be traced back to arrest of Knights Templar in Middle Ages, subsequently burnt at the stake and condemning us all to misfortune for the wrongs done to them

Today is Friday the 13th and we all know that means bad luck.

After yet another week of Brexit turmoil and England's loss in the Ashes, the sinister date's recurrence feels right on cue.

The superstition surrounding Friday the 13th is thought to originate with the Last Supper, attended by 13 people – Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples – on Maundy Thursday, the night before his crucifixion by Roman soldiers on Good Friday.

The number 13 is therefore associated with Judas Iscariot, Christ’s betrayer, and is regarded as imperfect when compared with 12, which represents the number of months in a year.

The burning of the Templars ( British Library/Robana/Rex)

The union of day and date has also been traced back to King Philip IV of France arresting hundreds of Knights Templar on Friday 13 October 1307.

The Catholic crusaders were apprehended - under pressure from Pope Clement V – over allegations made by an excommunicated former member that new recruits to the order were being forced to spit on the cross, deny Christ and engage in homosexual acts during initiation ceremonies.

The claims – seemingly entirely without foundation – were a convenient pretext for Philip to persecute the wealthy order and waive debts he owed them following war with England.

Charged with moral and financial corruption and worshipping false idols – often following confessions obtained under torture - many of the knights were later burnt at the stake in Paris.

The order’s Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, faced the flames in front of Notre Dame Cathedral and is said to have cried out a curse on those who had so gravely wronged them: “God knows who is wrong and has sinned. Soon a calamity will occur to those who have condemned us to death.”

The events initiated by the holy warriors’ arrest, according to tradition, ensured every subsequent Friday the 13th meant bad luck to one and all, De Molay’s hex ringing out through the ages.

An irrational fear of the date is known as paraskevidekatriaphobia.

In Spanish-speaking countries and in Greece, it is Tuesday the 13th that frightens people. In Italy, it is Friday the 17th. So each country has its thing.

Famous indicators of bad luck include a black cat crossing your path, breaking a mirror, walking under a ladder, opening an umbrella indoors and saying the name of Shakespeare’s “Scottish play” in a theatre.

(Source: Independent)

Ten superstitions of writers and artists

On days like today, we need all the tips, tricks, and good omens we can get. This Friday the thirteenth, we’re presenting you with the superstitions of ten artists and writers who (mostly) managed to avoid bad luck. 

Charles Dickens
Slept Facing North
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) carried a navigational compass with him at all times and always faced north while he slept—a practice he believed improved his creativity and writing.

Audrey Hepburn
Lucky Number Fifty-Five
The screen legend, humanitarian, and fashion icon Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) had a fascination with the number fifty-five. She is known to have requested the number for her dressing room—as it had also been her dressing-room number for both of the now classic films Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Dr. Seuss
Wore a Hat When Blocked
The author and illustrator Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904–1991), better known as Dr. Seuss, kept an immense collection of nearly three hundred hats. When facing writer’s block, the place Dr. Seuss would go was his secret closet, where he would choose a hat to wear until he felt inspired.

Ella Fitzgerald
Same Spot on the Stage
The American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) suffered from stage fright. The jazz historian and musician John Chilton, who played alongside her band, recalled that Ella would go through a sequence of movements on the same spot onstage prior to every performance in what appeared to be a ritual, which he believed calmed her enough to perform.

Gustav Mahler
Unlucky Number Nine
The Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) was hesitant to name his ninth symphony by number and called it Das Lied von der Erde instead. This was because several other composers, including Beethoven and Schubert, died after completing their ninth symphonies. According to his wife, Mahler had a heart condition and thought he could cheat death by not naming a symphony “the ninth.”

Isabel Allende
Starting Date
The Chilean American author Isabel Allende began writing her first novel on January 8, 1981. What had started as a letter to her grandfather who was dying eventually transformed into her book The House of the Spirits. Allende now begins all of her books on January 8. Initially, it was out of allegiance with her first book, but now she says she does it because she can be in solitude, since everyone knows she is not to be disturbed on that date.

James Joyce
Auspicious Number Two
The Irish novelist James Joyce (1882–1941) was nervous about a poor response to his epic novel, Ulysses, which he had worked on intensely. He chose his birthday, February 2, 1922, as the day to publish his masterpiece. Two copies of the book arrived in Paris by train on this day, one for Joyce and one for his bookseller, Shakespeare and Company. Lucky number two worked well for Joyce: Ulysses is now a classic.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Counted Coffee Beans
The master composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) rose at dawn and would immediately get to work. According to his secretary, coffee was the most important item in his diet, and he prepared it very methodically, counting out sixty coffee beans per cup. His routine sustained nine symphonies, thirty-two piano sonatas, and an opera.

Pablo Picasso
Held onto His “Essence”
The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) would not throw away his old clothes, hair trimmings, or fingernail clippings for fear it would mean losing part of his “essence.”

Salvador Dalí
Spanish Driftwood
The Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) considered himself to be very superstitious and carried around a little piece of Spanish driftwood to help him to ward off evil spirits. Known for his idiosyncrasies, he nearly suffocated once while giving a lecture in a diving bell helmet and suit.

Excerpted from Recipes for Good Luck: The Superstitions, Rituals, and Practices of Extraordinary People, by Ellen Weinstein, published by Chronicle Books this year.

(Source: The Paris Review)

Hoax 'devil coins' found in Bath Abbey

Fake currency was used in elaborate satanic hoax in Scandinavia in 1970s

Two “devil coins” that were hidden in Scandinavian churches as part of an elaborate hoax in the 1970s have been discovered in the unlikely setting of Bath Abbey.

Dusty odds and ends, including an order of service from 1902, were found in the abbey when stalls were removed for restoration work.

The most intriguing discovery, however, was two coins bearing a picture of Satan and the legend Civitas Diaboli on one side and 13 Maj Anholt 1973 on the other.

Experts figured out the coins were linked to the story of a Danish eccentric who perpetrated an elaborate 40-year hoax that was only discovered almost a decade after his death.

The date on the coins refers to an episode that took place on the island of Anholt, between Denmark and Sweden, in May 1973.

 The ‘devil coins’ were found when stalls were removed for restoration work in the abbey. Photograph: Wessex Archaeology

Thirteen “ritual sites” were discovered by residents that prompted an investigation by police from the Danish mainland.

Police puzzled over the meaning of the sites, where items included strange masks, weird stone formations, bones wrapped in string, black candles and a (fake) shrunken head on a stake. The story was picked up by the Danish national media and salacious stories of satanic cults on Anholt abounded.

Coins like those found at Bath Abbey began to be discovered in churches and museums across Denmark. Some were accompanied by letters claiming to be from a satanic high priestess named Alice Mandragora.

In 2013, the Danish newspaper Politiken ran a six-part investigation into the coin phenomenon, revealing that the Anholt mystery was a hoax perpetrated by Knud Langkow, an office clerk at the National Gallery of Denmark who died in 2004, aged 73.

His niece Lene Langkow Saaek told the newspaper he was not a satanist and the hoax was just his sense of humour. “I think normality annoyed him,” she said. ‘He did not like ordinary.”

Some coins may have been minted by Langkow but others are thought to have been created by independent experts who were in on the joke.

Bath’s Anholt coins are in the care of Wessex Archaeology and will be included in the final site archive, alongside artefacts dating from the Roman through to the modern period.

Bruce Eaton, the project manager, said historians and archeologists were used to written artefacts telling an untrue story, but not physical ones.

“As archaeologists we set great store by the integrity of the physical objects we recover. To discover finds that are a fabrication, designed to mislead, is both fascinating and a timely reminder that we should always view any discovery with a critical eye.”

(Source: The Guardian)

How number 13 became unlucky in my life

The Number 13 is considered to be unlucky by many and don’t know how many films have come on this unlucky number and its effects. I used to laugh when people used to tell me how unlucky the number 13 is and can be till I myself went through certain incidents.

Before what others say and think about the number, let me tell you how this number changed the very course of my life. In a way, it ruined my studies and changed the very way of looking the number.

Two months ago we shifted the house and went to an apartment. We didn’t give much attention when we were given a flat on the 13^thfloor. When people in the apartment started asking me if the 13^thfloor was lucky or unlucky, I was taken aback, but with a smile kept on telling them that so far it was lucky as there were no problems associated with it.

I was supposed to visit India and went to book my flight tickets. I wanted to return on 15^th, but the agent booked it on 13^th as most of the seats on 15^th were already booked!

On the day I started from Doha, unfortunately, the door got locked from inside and the apartment staff had to struggle to open the door of our flat. I blamed myself for being very careless and didn’t pay much attention towards the incident.

I reached the airport and unfortunately, my seat number was 13! I had to change my flight at Sharjah and I was waiting at the airport. I wanted to use the wash room and requested the guy sitting next to me to look after my luggage and left the place. Within two minutes I returned to the place where I was sitting and the guy had disappeared with my luggage. I was totally shocked, I asked other passengers sitting and they too didn’t know when the guy disappeared with my bag! I requested the police to search the CCTV cameras and catch the guy, as the bag had my laptop, the same laptop which had my four years of research. The cops promised me to look for the guy, took my number and made me to board the flight. No need to say that the cops never searched the CCTV cameras and caught the thief. I lost all my research material and all the dreams and hopes of completing the research were shattered in a moment. Then also, I took the blame on myself and thought it was my fault to trust a guy sitting next to me. I had a wrong notion that thefts won’t happen at airports, as there would be CCTV cameras everywhere. But I was wrong, extremely wrong.

I reached India and came to know that I was expecting. After getting the scanning report everybody became happy that I was pregnant and even I tried to console myself that whatever happens is for good. When I went for the second scanning after 10 days, there was yet another shocking news. The G-sac which was very slow in growing and docs were also surprised at it. They prescribed all the required medicines, but in vain. So they started wondering what should be done next.

Meanwhile, I cancelled my return ticket which was booked on this 13^th. Even before the docs could decide what could be done further, I suffered a miscarriage on 13^th. And I couldn’t help myself from sitting back and thinking about the number 13 and its effect on my life. After all these, I asked my hubby to change the flat to another floor and he shifted to 15^th floor.

After all these, how can I think the number 13 is not unlucky? Now let me show what others think about this number. As far as I have seen and known many westerners consider 13 as a devil number, very inauspicious and very unlucky. Not many apartments and hotels will have 13^thfloor or 13^th room or house in the building! 

The number has different meanings and interpretations in different religions and parts of the world.

In Hindi, the number 13 is called 'Terah', means 'yours'. It represents your karmas. In the spiritual context, it could also mean that everything belongs to one God/Creator, including the soul present in every human being.

The number 13 brings the test, the suffering and the death according to the tarot cards. It symbolises the death to the matter or to oneself and the birth to the spirit: the passage on a higher level of existence. (In Tarot, no. 13 card is named as Death, but it mostly means death of a struggling period and new beginning s. In some Tarot decks, the thirteenth mystery of the Tarot does not have a name. It marks the uncertainty, the hesitation, the fickleness or again a transformation, the end of something (the death) and a renewal, a rupture, that is to say a very important change.)

In ancient cultures, the number 13 represented femininity, because it corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13x28 = 364 days). The theory is that, as the solar calendar triumphed over the lunar, the number 13 became anathema.

But coming back to it as the sign of bad luck, it is believed that it brings bad luck and misfortune. This belief dates back to Biblical ages. Judas who betrayed Jesus is said to be the 13^thdisciple. Also, the 13^th chapter of the Revelation is reserved to the anti-christ and to the beast. It is also the day when Christ is said to have died on the Cross.

According to a legend, a year which contained 13 full moons instead of 12 posed problems for the monks who were in charge of the calendars. This was considered a very unfortunate circumstance, especially by the monks who were in charge of the calendar of 13 months for that year and it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals. For this reason, 13 came to be considered an unlucky number.

However, in a typical century, there will be about 37 years which have 13 full moons compared with 63 years with 12 full moons, and typically every third or fourth year would have 13 full moons, making it a reasonably common occurrence, unlikely to tax monks any more than leap years.

There are certain superstitions associated with the number. To see a black cat on Friday 13 leads to misfortune. It is preferable not to go out on that day, but if one leaves by a door, it is always necessary to enter by the same door. The superstition of Friday 13 was also revivified in this era of the computer by some viruses introduced into the computer systems appearing only on Friday 13.

But on the other hand, there are some fortune tellers who predict a better future on Friday 13. In France, as soon as there is a Friday 13 to the calendar, the National Lottery organises a special drawing because some choose that day to bet money.

The number 13 in the Coperos religion (small culture in Brazil) is like a God number.

Thirteen is the name of a custom and cruiser motorcycle magazine that is published in New Zealand. The name Thirteen refers to the letter "M", as it is the 13th letter in alphabet.

So, I think I’m not the only one to think that the number 13 is unlucky.