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Why is Friday the 13th considered unlucky? Personally, nothing bad has ever happened on Friday the 13th--that I recall.

But maybe, Friday the 13th induces amnesia!

A random and sundry collection of information on the (supposedly) unluckiest of days: Friday the 13th.


* Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck in English-, French- and Portuguese-speaking countries around the world, as well as in Austria, Germany, Estonia, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, and the Philippines.

* Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13.

* Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th.

* "Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent. Staying at home is recommended."
--Findings of a 1993 study published in the British Medical Journal, "Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?"

* If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven.
--According to various legends; from Urban Legends.about.com



* Many Christians have long believed that Friday was unlucky because it was the day of the week when Jesus was crucified. The number 13 was believed to bring bad luck because there were 13 people at The Last Supper. Since there were 12 tribes of Israel, that number was considered lucky.

* "Does anybody believe that Friday the 13th is necessarily a bad luck day anymore? Get over it. Superstitions make great copy and distill fear, the key element in our reality upon which most storylines are based."
--Friday the 13th

* After 13 years of being the richest man in the world, Microsoft Corporation chairman Bill Gates lost this title, according to Forbes magazine's 2008 list of the world's billionaires.

* Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams. Don't start a trip on Friday or you will have misfortune. If you cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow. Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck – as in the tale of H.M.S. Friday ... One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell once and for all the widespread superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned, named "H.M.S. Friday." They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday, and was never seen or heard from again.
--According to various legends; from Urban Legends.about.com

* The first recorded incident relating to Friday the 13th refers to the massacre of the Knights Templar on Friday October 13, 1307. The forces of Philip IV of France were instructed to open letters that morning, giving them orders to seek out and arrest all known members of the Knights, slaughter those that resisted, and capture Jacques DeMolay, the last known Grand Master of the Knights Templar.

After checking the calendar, all of the bad events in my life (blessedly, only a few) did not take place on Friday--or even on the 13th. But, like Scarlett O'Hara says, "Tomorrow's Friday the 13th is another day".

Or something like that.

If all of this doesn't get you started down the road to a good Friday the 13th bender, what will?

compiled by Mondoreb the 13th
Sources:
* Friday the 13th
* Why Friday the 13th is Unlucky
* Friday the 13th
* Friday the 13th
* Friday the 13th
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