Friday 13th: Super Unwarranted Superstition?
Ki! Ki! Ki! Ma! Ma! Ma! These consonantheavy echoes don’t happen to lend themselves to a state of bliss. In fact, Ki! Ki! Ki! Ma! Ma! Ma! typically insinuates danger is near. Or at least that’s what the Friday the 13th slasher films entail. But why dedicate an entire saga to a specific day? Why have such a dreary superstition just because a certain date falls on the occasional Friday? It’s not like Leap Day carries such negative connotations.
Even the number 13 alone is avoided by many people and establishments in Western Civilization’s culture.
The irrational fear; Triskaidekaphobia, is deemed unlucky and dates all the way back to Babylonian times. Though it is only considered a myth, the Code of Hammurabi (circa 1780 BCE) had omitted the 13th article. Judas was the 13th apostle to sit at the Last Supper. The Da Vinci Code wrote about Knights Templar being arrested on Friday, October 13th, 1307. Apollo 13 suffered an oxygen tank explosion. Tall hotel buildings still often omit from having a 13th floor (though those staying on the 14th floor should feel no real sense of comfort if the number 13 does happen to be cursed). The fear of the number may stem from an offset of the completeness in the number 12 (days of Christmas, months, zodiac signs, labors of Hercules, Gods of Olympus, tribes of Israel...).
The superstition behind Friday doesn’t have as sure of a history. Perhaps it is because of Jesus’ crucifixion taking place on Friday. It could be because Eve provided Adam the fateful apple on Friday. It could be because Friday was the day Cain killed his brother, Abel.
Last year’s ill- omened date carried something else that might have inadvertently sent shivers up one’s spine. A rare full harvest micromoon was visible and was at the point in its orbit where it was far
thest from Earth. Before last year’s phenomenon, the previous full moon observed on Friday the 13th was October 13th, 2000. It won’t happen again until August 13th, 2049.
The truth of the matter is that Friday the 13th isn’t much more than a meme, having an initially weak foundation but expanding on its own history and continuing to grow based off on that.
But there isn’t anything significant about the day itself. It is about as important Monday the 28th or Saturday the 2nd.
That’s not to say Friday the 13th hasn’t had its fair share of historical importance:
• Jan. 13, 1939: “Black Friday” bush fires killed 36 people in the Victoria province of Australia.
• Sept. 13, 1940: the Nazis dropped five bombs on Buckingham Palace.
• March 13, 1964: Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City, a crime that became infamous because more than 30 people witnessed the crime and not one intervened.
• Nov. 13, 1970: In what remains one of the worst natural disasters in history, a cyclone hit Bangladesh on this date, killing thousands.
• Oct. 13, 1972: Two separate plane crashes, one in the Andes and one in Moscow, caused the deaths of 203 people. In the Andes, the plane had been carrying a rugby team, whose survivors were stranded for 72 days and were forced to consume parts of the dead to survive.
• Aug. 13, 2010: a 13-year-old boy in England was struck by lightning at 1:13 p.m.—13:13 military time. He survived having only sustained a minor burn.
• Jan. 13, 2012: More than 30 passengers on the cruise ship Costa Concordia died when it wrecked off the Italian Coast.
With the yearly occurrences of the date, it doesn’t seem to be a superstition that looks to disappear soon. For now, we all will just throw some salt over our shoulders, avoid black cats, walk around ladders, close our umbrellas inside, knock on wood, and run if you hear Ki! Ki! Ki! Ma! Ma! Ma!