13 facts about Friday the 13th

Unnecessary knowledge that impresses
13 facts about Friday the 13th

Superstition or not - the mere idea that some people fear Friday the 13th gives us dark souls goosebumps. What frightens others and gives them a cold shiver has the potential to make us children of the night really greedy. What exactly lies behind the superstition surrounding the dreaded Friday the 13th and is there perhaps even some truth to it? Here are 13 quick facts about Friday the 13th, so that you can celebrate this rare and spooky day appropriately.

1. Friday the 13th occurs a maximum of three times in one calendar year. If you have a penchant for statistics and maths, you will certainly find something exciting about the fact that in the Gregorian calendar, which repeats every 400 years, the thirteenth of the month falls most frequently on a Friday - exactly 688 times. Incidentally, Wednesday the 31st occurs the least frequently, just 398 times in 400 years.
    
2. Medicine has its own technical term for people with a pathological fear of Friday the 13th: paraskavedekatriaphobia is the name of this almost unpronounceable phobia. The superstitious fear of the number 13 has been known for much longer and is known in medicine as triskaidekaphobia.
    
3. In Christianity, Friday the 13th is also an unlucky day. At the Last Supper, 13 people were invited. The last and 13th guest was Judas ... 
    
4. In Judaism, on the other hand, the number 13 is a lucky number, which can be traced back to the Book of Esther. On the 13th day of the twelfth month, the Jews are saved from annihilation by the Persian Grand Vizier Haman.
    
5. The origin of the combination phobia of the unlucky number 13 and a Friday is more likely to be attributed to modern times. In the late 19th century, there was a fear in the USA of sitting down at a table with twelve other people on a Friday. The ‘Thirteen Club’, founded in the 1880s, bravely defied this superstition. On Fridays, the members of the club dined in fine restaurants in groups of thirteen in order to defy fate. 
    
6. In his novel ‘Friday the 13th’, Thomas W. Lawson had his revenge on his former stock exchange colleagues and business partners in 1906/1907. In his fictional work, a Wall Street trader triggers a stock market crash through the influence of a woman.
    
7. The term "der schwarze Freitag" (the Black Friday) in Germany refers to the price collapse on the Berlin stock exchange on Friday 13 May 1927, but the trigger for the price collapse in Berlin was due to trading on Wall Street, where the crash had already taken place on Thursday 12 May 1927.
    
8. The Allensbach Institute has found that 28 per cent of Germans believe that the number 13 could have a meaning that should be taken into account. 
    
9. Lucky or unlucky: In the 6 out of 49 lottery on 9 October 1955, the number 13 was the first lottery number ever drawn in Lotto history. However, if you look at all lottery numbers, including the supplementary number, 13 brings up the rear, as it was the least frequent of all the numbers.
    
10. Even more statistics: the ADAC has found out that there are on average 48 fewer car accidents on a Friday the 13th than on other Fridays.
     
11. Let's continue with more of cars and vehicles: In 1962, Mexican Moisés Solana was the first driver in Grand Prix history to dare to start the race with starting number 13.  After his career ended in 1968, it took until the 2014/2015 Formula 1 season for the Venezuelan race driver Pastor Maldonado for the number 13 to be assigned again.
     
12. Consideration for superstitious customers: Lufthansa seats its fleet without a row 13 and, according to a report in DIE ZEIT, 40% of US hotels do not have a floor 13, so the 12th floor is immediately followed by the 14th floor. Room numbers with the number 13 are also avoided.
     
13. Those who want to cultivate their superstition and avoid the number 13 like the devil avoids holy water will find themselves on the same page as prominent personalities: Napoleon never went into battle on the 13th, Chancellor Bismarck did not sign any treaties on the 13th and former US President Gerald Ford stopped working on the 13th altogether.

The next Friday the 13th is on September the 13th 2024, followed by another Friday the 13th in 2024 - on December the 13th.