I'm Cristen from "Stuff Mom Never Told You"

here to tell you why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky.

Because in North America and Europe,

a significant proportion of the population

behaves very strangely on Friday the 13th.

Some people won't fly in airplanes,

host parties, apply for jobs, get married,

or even start new projects.

In fact, in the United States, roughly 8% of the population

is afraid of Friday the 13th, which

is a condition known as-- say it with me--

Paraskevidekatriaphobia.

That's right.

It's actually a combination of two separate fears.

We have fear of the number 13, called triskaidekaphobia,

and fear of Fridays, which is funny

because everybody's always working for the weekend,

or so I thought.

Anyway, the most familiar source of both of these phobias

is actually Christian theology.

13 is significant to Christians because it

is the number of people who were present at the Last Supper,

because you've got Jesus and his Twelve Apostles.

And Judas, the Apostle who betrayed Jesus,

was allegedly the 13th member of the party to arrive.

I think Judas was just being fashionably late, but you know.

Now Christians have traditionally

been wary of Fridays because they also

think that Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

Some theologians think that Adam and Eve

ate from the forbidden fruit on a Friday.

What's going on?

Why are all of the worst events in the Bible happening

on Friday, including the Great Flood?

Yeah, supposedly Noah and his Ark set sail on a Friday.

Is Friday God's least favorite day?

I'm starting to maybe think that it is.

Because of all this, in the past many Christians would never

begin any new project or trip on a Friday for fear that

the endeavour would be doomed from the start.

Now sailors were particularly superstitious in this regard,

often refusing to ship out to sea on a Friday.

According to nautical legend, in the 18th century

the British Navy commissioned a ship called the HMS Friday

in order to quell this superstition.

The Navy selected the crew on a Friday.

They launched the ship on a Friday.

They even selected a man named James Friday as the ship's

captain.

And then one Friday morning the ship set sail.

But at bad luck would have it, it disappeared.

Some historians then also trace a Christian distrust of Friday

to the church's overall opposition to pagan religions,

because, did you know, Friday is named after Frigg,

the Norse goddess of love and sex

who sounds like a really fun lady

to invite to one of your weekend parties.

Now this strong female figure, these historians claimed,

posed a threat to the male dominated Christianity.

So to fight her influence, the Christian church

characterized her as a witch, vilifying the day after her.

This characterization may have also played

a part of the fear of the number 13, triskaidekaphobia.

Do you remember that word?

Yeah.

I did.

I can just now start to say it correctly.

It was said that Frigg would often

join a convent of witches, normally a group of 12,

bringing the total number to 13.

And a similar Christian tradition

holds that 13 is unholy because it signifies

the gathering of 12 witches and the devil.

What?

That's kind of cool.

Some trace the infamy of the number 13

also back to ancient Norse culture.

In Norse mythology, the beloved hero Baldr

was killed at a banquet by the malevolent god

Loki who crashed the party of, you guessed it, 12,

bringing the group to 13.

And this story plus the story of the Last Supper

led to one of the most entrenched connotations

of the number 13.

You should never sit down to a meal at a group of 13.

Another significant part of the Friday the 13th legend

is particularly bad.

And this was a Friday the 13th that

occurred in the Middle Ages.

On a Friday the 13th in 1306, King Philip of France

burned the revered Knights of Templar at the stake,

marking the day as an occasion of evil.

Now these days, some people come to fear Friday

the 13th because of misfortune they've

experienced on that day in the past.

So if you get in a car wreck on Friday the 13th

or lose your wallet on that day, then that superstition

is bound to stick with you.

If you think about it, terrible things, horrible things,

or just mundane things like spilling coffee on your lap,

losing your wallet, losing your cell phone, et cetera,

this stuff happens all of the time.

If you're looking for bad luck on Friday the 13th,

you'll probably find it.

Same thing with Saturday the 14th

or Sunday the 15th, bad luck is everywhere, people.

So why do we consider Friday the 13th unlucky?

Well, maybe just because we want to.

If you want to learn more about traditions, cultures,

and how our bodies work in this crazy modern world,

you should watch more BrainStuff videos.

And don't forget to subscribe.

It's a very lucky thing to do.

I promise.