For some people, there is no worse day than Friday the thirteenth. And, it seems, adults, modern people, but continue to live under the rule of superstition - on this day it is especially zealous to spit and throw spilled salt over the left shoulder, not paying attention to those who are behind their backs, or bypassing black cats a kilometer away, so, just in case. Scientists have even come up with a hard-to-pronounce name for the fear of Friday the thirteenth - parascavidecatriaphobia.
It is impossible to say exactly how and when exactly this superstition appeared. Long before the twentieth century, the number 13 was considered a bad day, Friday was also considered a bad day, but there was no connection between them.
There are several versions of the origin of the concept of "Friday the thirteenth". The most popular connects this event with the Last Supper, in which thirteen people took part - Jesus, 12 of his disciples, the thirteenth of whom was Judas. According to another version, on Friday the thirteenth, Cain killed Abel, and Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. These versions are very doubtful precisely because of their religious nature - priest Andrei Taskaev says: “When Jesus was betrayed and crucified, it was Friday. Thus, for all Christians, this date is actually sacred, and not vice versa, and the number "13" is the most remarkable."
Another version explains the mystical power of Friday the thirteenth by the fact that the conclaves of witches consisted of thirteen participants, although the protocols of the courts do not confirm this. It is also believed that on this day all witches, ghouls and other evil spirits gather for a sabbath.
Astrologers and numerologists, who are so fond of interpreting the meanings of numbers and their combinations, have contributed a lot. True, they themselves shift the responsibility to Pythagoras - they say, it was he who left the famous doctrine of the harmony of numbers as a legacy and declared that numbers have absolute power over everything and everyone.
Surprisingly, sometimes superstitions associated not so much with Friday the thirteenth, but with the number "13" itself, are brought to the point of absurdity. For example, in Britain, many surgeons are canceling their Friday thirteenth surgeries. There is no seat at number 13 in cinemas. In the United States, many houses do not have a thirteenth floor - after the twelfth, the fourteenth immediately follows, sometimes the thirteenth is called 12A or 12B, or even just +1. Some airports do not have gates 13 and there are no flights on Friday the thirteenth.
There is no room 13 in the hotels, in the hospitals of the thirteenth ward, on the ships there is no thirteenth cabin. The planes do not have a thirteenth row. Because of this superstition, the US never had an F-13 fighter - the F-12 was followed by the F-14. And in Formula 1 there is no thirteenth car. In France, if thirteen people gather at the table, then they put the fourteenth chair on which the mannequin is seated.
There is no reason to consider Friday the thirteenth a happy or unlucky day, just as you should not consider the number itself good or bad. So, for example, the number thirteen in the Kabbalah and the ancient Maya was considered very favorable, and the S-13 submarine was the most successful in the Baltic Fleet during the Great Patriotic War.
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The media is also fueling people's superstitious fears by focusing on the date of an event that would not have been noticed if it had happened on any other day. Good and bad things happen regardless of the day of the calendar, but if a person wants to believe that his life depends on something - on numbers, dates, days of the week - then he will surely become dependent on the problems that he will invent and create for himself.