Friday the 13th

The Friday the 13th is considered in popular belief as a day pass to the particularly large number of accidents. The weekday as Jesus' death and the 13 as an unlucky number (see Triskaidekaphobia ) come from a Christian tradition.

The morbid fear of Friday the 13th Paraskavedekatriaphobie is called. This phenomenon can be so far in individual cases that sufferers cancel trips and dates or, do not trust on a Friday the Thirteenth from the bed.

Analyzes of accident data have shown that on a Friday the 13th does not happen more traffic accidents with severe damage as on a Friday the 6th or 20th An investigation of the accident reports in 2009 by the ADAC has shown that on a Friday the 13th. the number of accident reports was 894, while on other days, 975 accidents were reported.

• 4.1 Occurrence in songs
• 4.2 Occurrence in movies

Frequency

Each calendar year has at least one and at most three Fridays that fall on a Thirteenth.

• The shortest distance between two Fridays the 13th is just four weeks. This is always the case if February 13th is a Friday, and February is only 28 days long. Then is already in the following March, the 13th again Friday. Recently this was the case in 2009, the next time it will be in 2015.
• The longest distance between two Fridays the 13th is 14 months or exactly 61 weeks. This occurs when August 13th is a Friday, and the following year is a leap year. Then it will not be back in October of the following year to a Friday the 13th for the last time the case was this 1999/Oktober August 2000; the next time this happens 2027/Oktober August, 2028.
• An exactly equal length difference of 61 weeks would be even if July 13th is a Friday and the following year not a leap year. Then September 13 of the following year is just another Friday the 13th This was in July 2002 2001/September the case, just as in July 2012/September 2013.

The Gregorian calendar repeats itself because of the leap year rules every 400 years, which is exactly 20,871 weeks ( 146 097 days ). This fall the most Thirteenth ( 688 ) on a Friday. Conversely, also, that Fridays fall on no other day of the month more frequently than on a 13 (and all directly dependent Month Days 6, 20 and 27 ). The rarest is the Wednesday before the 31, only 398 times in 400 years. The following table shows the frequencies of all combinations are listed.

The following table lists the example of the years 2001 to 2028 all the months in which the 13th is a Friday. This sequence is repeated every 28 years 1901 to 2099.

Origin of superstition

Two bad luck symbols in one day

There are many attempts to explain this popular superstitions. One of them is based on the fact that the Thirteen and Friday individually for a long time are each considered bad luck symbols. It is likely that superstitious people on days that were Fridays and Thirteenth same time, has always feared particularly great misfortune. Later, the superstition spread in such a way that nowadays even people at the Friday the 13th believe that would have a problem with either Fridays or with the number thirteen in detail.

The " unlucky number " 13

The 13 exceeds the closed system of twelve and is a prime number only by one and itself divisible without remainder. This gives it quite a special meaning. In the Bible, the 12 has a harmonious effect, at the Last Supper, however, 13 people were present. The statement of the 13th of the traitor Judas was, is untenable from a logical point of view, but is often used in this context. Long said the 13 in the German vernacular, the " dozen of the devil". Not everywhere but the number is a symbol of bad luck. In the Jewish tradition, the 13 is a lucky number and a symbol of God because it is about the Twelve. Among the Japanese, the 13 is also considered a lucky number. The Jewish calendar is based on the moon, so on the 14th of the month is always a full moon. If the full moon falls on a Sabbath (Saturday), which is a stroke of luck, that is also Friday the 13th something positive.

The "black" Friday

According to the New Testament, Jesus was crucified on a Friday. In 1930 but was about in Protestant northern Germany, Friday was lucky and particularly good date to get married (even "free " called ).

Another common assertion is that the so-called " Black Friday " has to do with the fact that the Friday the 13th bad luck is attributed. However, this is contradicted by the fact that the U.S. stock market crash of 1929 began on a Thursday. In the public consciousness, the stock market crash but later linked with Friday because it is the time difference in Europe already was Friday at that time. However, there were already two and a half years before the events at the New York Stock Exchange a German black Friday at the Berlin Stock Exchange. The stock market crash on May 13, In 1927 the share index of the Reich Statistical Office, within one day fall by 31.9 percent.

The wreck of the cruise ship Costa Concordia on January 13, 2012 off the Italian island of Giglio is another example of an accident on Friday, 13

The " Friday the 13th " in the history

One of the first testified " disaster events" that the 13th fell on a Friday, was the most October 13, 1307 by the French king Philip IV commanded arrest of all the members of the Knights Templar in Paris ( Knights Templar ). Even days earlier, sealed envelopes were sent with the warrants to all " services " of the country. This carried out with meticulous action eventually led to abolition of the Knights Templar by the papal bull Vox in excelso on 22 March 1312. Spite of the tragedy of this event, it is not 13 ​​considered as the origin of the superstition around Friday.

Between 1307 and 1907 there is still no written records of the Friday the 13th as an unlucky day. The online archive of the New York Times there is no mention of Friday the 13th place before in 1907. Edition of The New York Times published some 56 years earlier, on 18 September 1851.

The American Thomas William Lawson, who had become in the late 19th century through stock market speculation multimillionaire, wrote in 1907 the stock market novel Friday the 13th, as of Friday the 13th was released in the same year in Germany. Thomas W. Lawson can thus be seen as the inventor of the horrors appointment.

In Germany increased the awareness of the new calamity day, when the 1916 movie Friday the 13th of director Richard Oswald was released in theaters, which dealt with a family whose members always died on this date.

The superstition was fostered by the 1944 spilled in German cinemas Comedy Friday the 13th of director Erich Engels on.

Folklorist Stephan Bachter According to the based of the popularity and acceptance that this belief is very old, only on false media reports, in which the near- disaster of the Apollo 13 mission or the stock market crash ( Black Friday ) this hoodoos was assigned. He leads the superstition on the sixth and seventh book of Moses back in the version of the Brunswick Planet publishing house from 1949 /50. There is warned before the 13 Things on a Friday. Previously, this compound was completely unknown. This book, however, was published too late to be the origin can.

At the beginning of the 21st century emerged the controversial rumor " Friday the 13th " had become in Germany in 1957 by a commentary by Thilo Koch in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on the concept.

Prevalence and significance of

Not everywhere in the world is Friday the 13th is a special date. In the Spanish-speaking countries and Greece Tuesdays that fall on the 13th of the month are (Martes 13), as unlucky days. In Italy, Friday the 17th is considered a misfortune date.

Occurrence in songs

• Incoming Friday 13th of Reinhard Mey (1969 )
• Friday the 13th from the dead Pants on the album Ladies Choice
• Friday the 13th of Manny Marc & Reckless
• Friday the 13th of MC Basstard, Act One & Mach One
• Paraskavedekatriaphobia ( Friday the 13th ) by Fozzy
• Friday the 13th of Vega ( Vincent Album )

Occurrence in movies

• Friday the 13th (1944 ), Danish comedy, directed by Erich Engel
• Friday the 13th (1953), Czechoslovakian drama, directed Paľo Bielik
• Friday the 13th (1980 ), American horror film, directed by Sean S. Cunningham
• Friday the 13th (2009), American horror film remake from 1980, directed by Marcus Nispel
• Friday the 13th (film series ), after the horror film from 1980 called American film series ( eleven episodes and a spin-off )
• Heirs of the curse ( original title Friday the 13th: The Series ), which is also based on the film of 1980 Canadian television series
• The Da Vinci Code - The Da Vinci Code, relating to the arrest of the Templars on Friday the 13th