Friday the thirteenth seems 3 times in 2026, with at this time marking a kind of ‘spooky’ days.
Sometimes called the unluckiest day of the yr, that is the second time it seems on the 2026 calendar, having final occurred in February.
And it will likely be again once more later this yr, with one other Friday 13th going down in November.
It’s fairly uncommon to have so many ‘unfortunate’ days in a single yr, with 2026 recording the utmost quantity of annual occurrences.
However what makes the day stand out?
Friday the thirteenth has lengthy been related to dangerous luck and superstition. Typically fodder for horror movies, the day is claimed to be riddled with creepy goings-on and superstitious behaviour.
There are 12 slasher films within the Friday the thirteenth franchise, but it surely’s as much as you to decipher why producers haven’t added any extra.
But it is not simply the stuff of Hollywood legend — lodges have usually gone to nice lengths to take away “room 13s”, whereas many tall buildings lack a thirteenth flooring, and a few planes do not have a row 13.
So the place does our superstition round this specific date, referred to as paraskevidekatriaphobia, come from? And why are we so afraid of the quantity 13?
Here is all you’ll want to know.
The place did the Friday the thirteenth superstition come from?
The worry of Friday the thirteenth is so widespread that it’s usually cheaper to fly on that day. However the superstition, discovered principally in Western tradition, has been round since lengthy earlier than air journey was invented.
13 is arguably essentially the most vilified quantity, and has numerous malevolent origins.
Probably the most infamous look of the quantity 13 comes from the Bible. Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is assumed to have been the thirteenth visitor to sit down all the way down to the Final Supper.
It’s additionally usually the “loss of life” card in a deck of tarot playing cards, and in Norse mythology, a cocktail party of the gods was ruined by the thirteenth visitor known as Loki, who brought about the world to be plunged into darkness.
Friday doesn’t have repute both. Good Friday was the day of Jesus’s crucifixion and, within the UK, Friday was as soon as referred to as Hangman’s Day as a result of it was often when individuals who had been condemned to loss of life had been hanged.
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s well-known Canterbury Tales, written within the 14th century, he says: “And on a Friday fell all this mischance.”
Members of the Eccentric Membership of London, at their annual Friday the Thirteenth lunch, surrounded by omens of dangerous luck
E Dean / Topical Press Company / Getty Imagges
Based on folklorists, the mixture of Friday and the quantity 13 as a day of significantly dangerous luck appears to be a comparatively latest custom – maybe solely about 100 years previous.
A potential origin of the superstition could be traced to the publication of Thomas W Lawson’s novel Friday, The Thirteenth in 1907, through which a dealer takes benefit of the superstition to create a panic on Wall Avenue.
One of the crucial popularised myths making an attempt to elucidate the origin of the Friday 13 superstition stems from occasions on Friday, October 13, 1307, when lots of of Knights Templar had been arrested and burned throughout France.
Many have linked the Knights Templar to the Holy Grail, and their brutal demise has usually been utilized in Twentieth-century literature, reminiscent of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
The Eccentric Membership, certainly one of London’s oldest gentleman’s golf equipment, has held particular Friday the thirteenth dinners because the 18th century, seating 13 individuals at a dinner desk surrounded by “unfortunate” objects.
Will you be avoiding mirrors in case they smash this Friday?
Getty
Is there any proof that it’s unfortunate?
In 1993, a British Medical Journal examine claimed there was a “vital” enhance in incidents on Friday the thirteenth, however the creator of the examine later confessed it was “a little bit of enjoyable” as conventional within the Christmas version.
There’s anecdotal proof that unfortunate issues will occur on Friday the thirteenth, nonetheless.
In 1976, New Yorker Daz Baxter was apparently so afraid of Friday the thirteenth that he determined the most secure place to remain was his mattress.
Mr Baxter was killed when the ground of his condo block collapsed that day.
Nearer to dwelling, in 2009, the £13.5 million SAW trip at Thorpe Park had its opening premiere on Friday 13th, solely to be shut down as a consequence of a computer-programming fault.
In 2010, lightning struck a 13-year-old Suffolk boy on Friday thirteenth at 13:13.
How usually does Friday the thirteenth occur?
Friday the thirteenth happens not less than yearly, and as much as 3 times a yr.
It occurred simply as soon as final yr, and can happen solely as soon as every subsequent yr and in 2028 – however we may have three this yr, in February, March and November.
Spooky stuff. However, for many Brits, Friday the thirteenth shall be simply one other day.
