Friday The Thirteenth is a day known by many for being a superstitious disaster. It became infamous enough to warrant a phobia in its name. Paraskevidekatriaphobia. It gets its name from the Greek words Paraskevi (“Friday”), triskaideka (“thirteen”), and phobos (“fear”). Some say the myths and bad juju are based around the popular movie, but there are tons of cases of bad occurrences that lean into superstition.
One of the oldest occurrences is in the Holy Bible, circling around the last supper and the crucifixion. In the Christian belief, the last supper had 13 occupants and Jesus was crucified on a friday. Even before that, is the belief that the day Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit was a Friday. The eating of the forbidden fruit is a very important event that changed religious history in unmeasurable ways, so it has a big impact on the bad karma of Friday the 13th. And although that was important, there were so many other events that added onto the delusion of this holiday.
One disaster being the Costa Concordia cruise ship wreck. The Concordia was supposed to take passengers on a seven-day Italian cruise from Civitavecchia to Savona, in January of 2012. They were around the island of Giglio when Captain Schettino sailed too close to shore, hitting the Scole Rocks reef and endangering the 4,229 people on board. There are several theories on why the captain dared to careen so close to shore, ranging from impressing a suitor to simply wanting to offer a good show to the passengers. Either way it is said that a shipwreck is never just a one way crash. There are usually many things that go wrong, and this time enough was not fixed to keep all the people safe, and 32 passengers in all were killed. Twenty seven tourists and five crew members. The death toll was felt and the irrationality of Friday 13th was blamed, along with the captain, of course.
Death is a common occurrence among Friday 13th lore, and a big example of that was King Phillip IV and the torture and murder of over fifty-four Templar Knights. In May of 1307, King Phillip IV was short of money and wary of the power he saw in the belief the Muslims held in their God. He decided that the best course of action was to arrest all the knights of Templar. So, on that fateful day in May, he had them all arrested. He also reclaimed all the orders’ land. King Phillip IV accused the knights of worshipping the devil, denying God, and turning their backs on the cross, along with a number of other things. These men were then tortured, brainwashed, and held captive until they admitted to committing heinous acts. They were given no other choice. Most claimed that they were forced and had no will in doing what it was claimed that they had done, but people all over were disgusted all the same. Friday 13th fifty-four knights were burned at the stake, and under the influence of heavy torture, the rest confessed later on. Some were burned at the stake, others faced life in prison, and some escaped with a promise to join a monastery. The Pope was then publicly pressured into shutting the order down, but many still conspire about it today.
All throughout history, people have felt the fear and bad aura surrounding the holiday. No matter the reason, so many people are wary of the superstition and bias surrounding Friday 13th.
