That's how Friday the 13th has already passed a couple of days, and I missed it completely. It is believed that on this day one should be especially careful, as failures and troubles lie in wait for a person. Especially superstitious people do not even leave the house - psychiatrists diagnose "parascavidecatriaphobia" (fear of Friday, 13). This phobia is considered as a special case of triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13).
Before the release of the horror film on the screen, I had no idea that I needed to be "afraid" of this date, but nevertheless, having studied the history of the phenomenon, I learned that this "damn Friday" appeared long before the film.
Let's read how this could happen …
Superstition story about Friday the 13th
Even the ancient Romans considered "13" as the number of death, destruction, misfortune. Some theologians believe that it was on Friday, the 13th, that Eve ate the forbidden fruit and gave it to Adam. It is also believed that on Friday, the 13th, Cain killed his brother Abel. Also, some believe that Friday the 13th is unlucky due to the fact that the crucifixion of Christ happened on Friday, and Judas, who betrayed Jesus, was the thirteenth apostle. There are also opinions unrelated to Scripture.
A popular explanation for the special treatment of Friday the 13th is the history of the Knights Templar. It was on Friday, October 13, 1307, that the French king Philip IV the Handsome ordered the arrest of members of the order, including all of its supreme leadership. As a result of the ensuing trial on charges of heresy and blasphemy of its members, the order was disbanded, and many Templars arrested in France were tortured and later executed, including by burning.
The story told is well known from Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, although he was far from the first to set it out in connection with the special attitude of some people on Friday the 13th.
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According to the oldest beliefs, on Friday the 13th, 12 witches always flocked to the Sabbath, ghouls and other evil spirits gathered, and in the midst of the fun, when the full moon rises, Satan himself appeared on the thirteenth.
At the end of the 18th century, the superstition about Friday the 13th was so strongly entrenched in the minds of the British that the authorities decided to prove the absurdity of this omen. For this, a ship called "Friday" was built, the construction of which began on Friday the 13th. It was launched on Friday the 13th, and in front of the general public, again on Friday the 13th, the ship went out to sea. Since then, no one has seen Friday: the ship, along with the crew, went missing.
One of the loudest shipwrecks of the 20th century is also associated with Friday the 13th - on December 13, 1907, one of the largest ships at that time - the seven-mast schooner "Thomas Laurson" - crashed on underwater reefs.
Spanish and Portuguese sailors, on the contrary, consider Friday the 13th a favorable day for sailing. This is due to the fact that Christopher Columbus began his voyage to the shores of America on Friday.
Beliefs on Friday the 13th
Opinion polls show that every fifth European is afraid of the number "13".
Many surgeons are afraid of this date. On this day, some doctors do not prescribe surgeries, and already appointed surgeries are postponed to any other day. Doctors are convinced that the risk of failure of the operation carried out on Friday the 13th doubles. For example, British surgeons are canceling 50% of operations scheduled for Friday the 13th.
Also, many computer users consider Black Friday the most dangerous day in terms of virus attacks. At the dawn of the computer age, many virus program creators established a mechanism for triggering the malicious properties of a virus on this very day.
On Friday the 13th it is not recommended to make deals and celebrate weddings. It is believed that it is better not to leave the house once again on this day.
To avoid the dire consequences of Friday the 13th, according to popular belief, you just need to visit the church that day.
Friday the 13th at the cinema
At the end of the 20th century, the popularization of the term "Friday the 13th" was a series of films of the same name about a serial killer in a hockey mask, Jason Voorhees, who comes to life on the day of his death, on Friday the 13th, and begins to take revenge on everyone. A total of 12 films in the series were shot.
Paramount Pictures is planning to show its next Friday the 13th horror film in winter 2017.
There is a whole separate phobia in honor of this day - paraskavedecatriaphobia. This word is composed of the words Friday and thirteen in Greek.
Here are the accidents they collected on Friday the 13th:
25. One of the oldest assumptions about the origin of fear by Friday the 13th refers to 1307, when the French king Philip IV ordered the arrest and execution of thousands of crusaders.
24. Just before Halloween 1989, the New York Stock Exchange crashed on Friday the 13th, dropping the Dow Jones by nearly 191 in just one day. It was the second worst day in US history.
23. On Friday the 13th 2010 in England at 13 hours 13 minutes a 13-year-old boy was struck by lightning. He miraculously survived, escaping with a minor burn.
22. The Aztec Empire fell unexpectedly on Friday August 13, 1521, when the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived with his men in the city of Tenochtitlan, remaining in Mexico City and ending the once great civilization.
21. Due to the fact that millions of people are afraid to travel or work on any Friday the 13th, the international economy loses about $ 900 million for each such day of no flights and travel.
20. New Yorker Daz Baxter on Friday August 13, 1976 decided to stay at home in his bed all day to avoid potential setbacks and misfortunes. But bad luck came for him when his apartment building collapsed.
19. 1989 was marked by the Friday the 13th Virus, when hundreds of IBM computers in the UK were infected and data was constantly erased. Those were the times when backup was not yet introduced into practice, and information was lost without a trace.
18. On a recent Friday the 13th in 2012, there was a real disaster. In January 2012, the cruise ship Costa Concordia sank in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the island of Giglio off the coast of Italy. This accident killed 32 people.
17. Uncle Joshua Dudley died at the end of 1995. The deceased relative's lawyer called Joshua to inform him that his uncle bequeathed a fortune of $ 3 million to his nephew. Everything would be fine, but at the time of the announcement of the will, Dudley was at the Faberge Egg Show, and his emotional dance of happiness caused damage in the amount of $ 4 million.
16. Have you ever heard of such a psychological phenomenon as the Observer Effect? The bottom line is that when people are in a large group, and someone is in trouble, no one dares to help, because they think that someone else will do it for him. Nearly 30 neighbors are said to have seen Catherine Susan Genovese stabbed to death in Queens, New York on Friday the 13th 1964. But no one called the police and prevented the murder.
15. On Friday 13 January 1939 in Australia, Victoria, violent wildfires broke out, killing 36 people that day and destroying 75% of the state.
14. In October 1972, on Friday the 13th, a plane crashed in the Andean mountains. Of all who were on board, 12 people died immediately, several more people died due to the avalanche, and those who survived became cannibals. On the same day, another plane crashed, taking off from St. Petersburg to Moscow. All 160 passengers were killed.
13. Prostitute Frances Cole was brutally murdered on Friday the 13th February 1891 in London by having her throat cut from ear to ear. The murder of the girl was allegedly the last murder in the notorious Whitechapel area, where Jack the Ripper rampaged.
12. Researcher Tawny Wetzel tried to determine if there was any connection between the ominous date and ambulance calls. As a result, she tragically died on Friday 13th January 1977 due to a hornet attack.
11. Some pretty scary people were born on Friday the 13th, including the horror master Alfred Hitchcock and the former president of Cuba.
10. Nathan Bedford Forrest - one of the founders of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization, was also born on Friday, July 13, 1821.
9. Adolf Hitler's blitz offensive was to completely destroy London in a massive bombing raid. On Friday September 13, 1940, Nazi fighter jets fired at Buckingham Palace, destroying the main chapel. Fortunately, the royal family was at a tea party elsewhere.
8. In November 1970, on Friday the 13th, one of the worst natural disasters in human history occurred. In just 1 day, 500,000 people died in Bangladesh. They were killed by the most powerful tropical Cyclone Bhola.
7. The most unlucky Briton in 1998 was John Sheridan. His car was stolen 5 times a day, 6 TVs blew up in six months, and he lost £ 4,000 by forgetting to pull a winning lottery ticket out of his trousers before washing. On Friday the 13th in 1998, his car ran out of fuel. A policeman agreed to give him a lift, whose car also broke down right at the gas station. Sheridan walked back to his car with a can of fuel, but as soon as he rounded the corner, his wheel fell off. He took a bus to get home that day, and, you guessed it, this transport also broke down.
6. On Friday October 13, 1972, New Yorker Dana Hamilton sold her beautiful hair to a wig shop to buy a gold chain for her husband's favorite pocket watch. She returned home the same evening with a present. Inadvertently, she discovered that her husband had sold his expensive watch to buy a pearl necklace for the secretary he was having an affair with.
5. In 1992, a certain Justin Bartlett was arrested in Texas. The offender was sentenced to death. On January 11, a prisoner awaiting execution was given an adjournment, but unfortunately he died two days later on Friday the 13th, poisoning himself during his last meal.
4. Hurricane Charlie struck southern Florida on August 13, 2004 and did not stop for 6 days. The state suffered $ 11 billion in damage.
3. Perhaps the most famous rapper of all time, Tupac Shakur died on Friday September 13, 1996, from gunshot wounds as he walked out of Mike Tyson's boxing match in Las Vegas a few days earlier.
2. And although we cannot yet be sure for sure what will happen in the future, it is predicted on Friday, April 13, 2029 that Asteroid 99942 Apophis will fly by the Earth. The trajectory of the cosmic body will pass closer than any of our satellites. A little comfort for the superstitious - since these predictions were made, the possibility of a collision has been significantly reduced thanks to new, more accurate calculations.
1. America's most famous daredevil was Sam Patch, who rose to fame after jumping into the Niagara River in 1829 from a platform near the very top of Niagara Falls. Later that year, he decided to jump from the 30-meter height of Rotchester Falls over the Genesee River. After failing to collect the expected revenue from this jump on November 6, Sam repeated his stunt on Friday November 13, during which he crashed to death.