Friday the 13th is a double-whammy of a day fraught with wicked omens … especially for triskaidekaphobics, those haunted souls who have a crippling fear of that unmentionably evil integer that looms between 12 and 14.
13: The Devil's Dozen
Take a look at this:
• If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year.
• The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary.
• If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck.
• There are 13 witches in a coven.

This is all what is said in public (Myths). Though no one can say for sure when and why human beings first associated the number 13 with misfortune, the belief is assumed to be quite old and there exist any number of theories purporting to trace its origins to antiquity and beyond.

It is said to have originated in the India with the Hindus (Norse Mythology), who believed, for some reasons, that it is always unlucky for 13 people to gather in one place, say, at dinner.
"Twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla. Loki, the Evil One, god of mischief, had been left off the guest list but crashed the party, bringing the total number of attendees to 13. True to character, Loki raised hell by inciting (=showing disloyalty) Hod, the blind god of winter, to attack Balder the Good, who was a favorite of the gods. Hod took a spear of mistletoe offered by Loki and obediently hurled it at Balder, killing him instantly. All Valhalla grieved. And although one might take the moral of this story to be "Beware of uninvited guests bearing mistletoe," the Norse themselves apparently concluded that 13 people at a dinner party is just plain bad luck. "

As if to prove the point, the Bible tells us there were exactly 13 present at the Last Supper. One of the dinner guests, i.e. disciples — betrayed Jesus Christ, setting the stage for the Crucifixion. And Crucifixion took place on a Friday!
The Consequences:
• Italians omit the number 13 from their national lottery!
• There is a hush-hush organization in France whose exclusive purpose is to provide last-minute guests for dinner parties, so that no party host ever has to suffer the curse of entertaining 13 guests.
• Skyscrapers and hotels have no 13th floor!
• Airplanes have no 13th aisle!
• The majority of purchasers refuse to complete on Friday the 13th!
• Now there is ‘triskaidekaphobia’! : A phobia which is the fear of the number 13!
Bad Friday
Read this too:
• Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams.
• Don't start a trip on Friday or you will have misfortune.
• If you cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow.
• Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck :-

Tale of H.M.S. Friday: ... One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell once and for all the widespread superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned, named "H.M.S. Friday." They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday, and was never seen or heard from again!!!
Friday the 13th: A perfect combination!

Now if you have bad Friday + Unlucky 13 = Friday the 13th , then things turn worst!
Some observations:
• Fewer people chose to drive their cars on Friday the 13th.
• The number of hospital admissions due to vehicular accidents was significantly higher than on "normal" Fridays.
• The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent.
• From British Medical Journal in 1993 entitled "Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?" Their conclusion: Friday 13th is unlucky for some. Staying at home is recommended!"
• North Carolina (USA) estimates that in the United States alone, $800 or $900 million is lost in business each Friday the 13th because some people will not travel or go to work.

Well, the most surprising thing is that this superstition is common in developed countries like US and UK! There is no scientific evidence for ‘Luck’. But can all these be just co-incidences? Or there is something which science has not yet seen! Will this be a mystery making Psychologists to bow down or …?

Better wait for the next Friday the 13th

Like what you've said there is not scientific prove that Friday the 13th is bad. Reason why people stay away from it is no more than fear and the old saying of better be safe than sorry.

Personally I don't think Friday the 13th is scary or anything. It's just another day..

The Hindus (and India) don't have anything to do with Norse Mythology. Also, I'm probably being a bit pedantic but Loki didn't incite Hodur to do anything. Balder was supposed to be impervious to (neigh) everything. His brothers were attacking him for sport when Loki gave Hodur a sprig of mistletoe. Because Hodur was blind, he didn't realize that it was Loki who gave him, and so he threw it at Balder, pierced his heart, and killing him. Later the Gods got Hel (Goddess of the underworld) to agree to bring Balder back to life if every living creature on the planet agreed to it. Loki (disguised as a female giant -- he tended to do that a lot) wouldn't agree, and so Balder was left in the underworld, the first portent to the coming of Ragnarok. Shame on Jon Bowen for getting it wrong.

This post has been edited by WindAndWater: Apr 25 2006, 09:43 PM

If you ask me its the fact that people WANT to belive in it. for example lets take the ship that sank called friday with all the friday associations. if that ship was called HSM wednesday and everything to do with fridays was gone e.g. the guy in charge was Jim smith the ship still would sink but no-one would pay much attention, they would just think its another accident...now the fact it was so associated with friday when people heard it they thought "wow it must be unlucky on fridays..." because of the old superstitions they realise the connections and make up a theory that friday is unlucky. Also : There can be any number of witches in a coven though traditionally you are right But thats not a bad thing! One of my friends is scared of seeing one magpie (a black bird for any one who doesnt know ) on its own because she belives it brings bad luck and if she sees a magpie anything bad that heppens that day she automatically thinks its the birds fault because she saw it. its the same with friday the 13th, if anyting bad happens on or near it people blame the day.

Interesting toipic though, never really been superstitios myself so id like to know what any superstitious people think

If you think about it, most of these superstitions are sprung from the Church, which was very prominent in England, and also many of these come from the times of Elizabethan England. However, I believe every nation has large amounts of people that are superstitious, it's just you don't hear about them, the UK and US are clogging up the news these days, so there's no time to hear about the superstitious peoples in the less developed countries. I'm not superstitious, and none of my friends are, if anything, superstitions are more common in developing countries and countries that rely more on religion to govern the nation than developed countries in the West.

Sorry, had to let that out.

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Anyway, as for Friday 13th, I don't think of it any different, it's just another day, the only effect it has on me is that college gets out . Which is always good news. Other than that, I don't do anything differently on that day, I don't believe in superstition at all, so if something bad happens, well then something bad happens right? I'm not against Friday 13th though, because although people are oppressed by their superstitions I get to enjoy a day off, for old witchcraft worries and frivolities that were given birth to half a millenium ago.

Well, I was born on friday 13th so it is the best day in the universe. I think that, since many people believe that something bad will happen of friday 13th, they are more likely to remember bad things that they experienced on that day than on any other day. It is similar to prayer: people easily remember cases when their prayers are answered, and they often disregard all other cases.

I'd like to point out that norse mythology is from northern europe and hinduism is from india(asia minor). These are two completely separate things. if you want info on hinduism please go here(hindunet.org)

I don't really believe in bad luck. 13 is just a number like any other number, and I really don't think there is anything bad about it...