Why Is Friday The 13th Considered Unlucky?

Do you suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia? If you're freaking out about today, the answer is yes.

According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute (this is a real place) approximately 20 million people are affected by this day, must in the same way people are affected by black cats, picking up pennies, rabbits feet, four-leaf clovers, and other superstitions.

Some people feel such a sense of doom that they don't even get out of bed on days like today. And people that don't call in sick from life have bad things (like car accidents) happen to them because they expect bad luck. Research has shown that productivity is down on Fridays the 13th and that it costs the economy about a billion dollars.

We all know a lot of people consider the number 13 to be unlucky, but you may find this hard to believe: some cultures consider Friday to be an unlucky day.

This is primarily because of Good Friday, Jesus being crucified on a Friday. This transcends Friday the 13th. Italian culture considers Friday the 17th to be a particularly unlucky day.

So, is this just a case of people combining an unlucky day (Friday) with an unlucky number (13) and coming up with assigned bad days? In a lot of ways, yes, that's exactly what it is.

Oddly enough, Friday the 13th went from being just something people talked about amongst themselves to something mainstream thanks to a book.

In 1907, Thomas W. Lawson wrote a book titled Friday The Thirteenth, which is where a greedy Wall Street executive (they existed back then too) took advantage of the superstition to create a stock market panic on a Friday which happened to be the 13th of the month.

It was also covered in this movie, which refers to a famous arrest in France that happened on a Friday the 13th in 1307, when Jacques de Molay, who was the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was arrested along with hundreds of other people by King Philip IV.

Regardless, don't let negative thoughts ruin your day. Carpe diem! YOLO! Ask for that raise. Talk to that person you have a crush on (it is cuffing season after all).

What's the worst that could happen?