Friday the 13th is notorious for being the unluckiest day on the calendar. So much so, it causes 8% of our population legitimate terror–and not just due to those cheesy slasher movies starring the infamous hockey-masked Jason. The psychiatric term for fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia. No evidence could be found by this writer as to why this phobia was given two shrink terms. Perhaps it is just that terrifying.
So why are so many people afraid of it?
Well, for starters, this one day and number has generated superstition for centuries. While the first real mention of it was in the late nineteenth century following the death of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini–who died on a Friday the 13th–some believe the day has been linked with mayhem since 1307, when the French king ordered the arrest of hundreds of Knights Templar on a Friday the 13th.
To further perpetuate our fears, some weird Friday the 13th shizzle has gone down in history.
The Aztec Empire fell on August 13, 1521–a Friday.
On Friday, October 13, 1972, a 45 passenger plane, including Uganda's Rugby team, crashed in the Argentinian Andes, leaving only 14 survivors.
On Friday, August 13, 2010, an English teen was struck by lightning. He was 13 years old and the strike occurred at 13:13 military time, according to BBC.
On Friday, August 13, 1993, Thailand's Royal Palace Hotel collapsed, killing 147 people.
All that stuff aside though, pop singer, Taylor Swift seems to have had amazing luck on Friday the 13th. Her birth date falls on the thirteenth and she turned thirteen on a Friday the 13th. Her very first album raced through the charts and landed on gold in 13 weeks. And according to MTV, Miss Swift claims that with every award she's won, she was sitting in either the 13th seat, 13th row, or 13th section.
So, on that happy note, your Friday the 13th luck is about to go the way of Taylor Swift. This week only, through midnight on Friday the 13th, my book, Small Town Ghosts, will be available to download FREE for Amazon Kindle.
Click Here to Read Your Way to a Ghostly Friday the Free-teenth.
And stay safe out there this Friday. Statistics show that hospital rates from car accidents go up by 52% on Friday the 13th.