Ooh, Friday the 13th. Spooky, right? Maybe…but why?

I wondered the same thing as the date approached. I thought, “Cool, there is a Friday the 13th this week.” Then I thought, “What is Friday the 13th?” Is it supposed to be scary? Spooky? Superstitious? Bad luck? Naturally, to get answers to these questions I took to Google.

Most of what I read felt like I was drowning in a convoluted 11th grade math problem (there was a surprising amount of numbers involved in the Wikipedia article defining Friday the 13th), but once I waded past that recurring high school nightmare (math was/is my number one nemesis) I found some pretty interesting facts.

I still get intrigued when a Friday the 13th comes across the calendar, as if it’s somewhat of a special occurrence, but apparently there is at least one every year! That’s right, every year! I have obviously been oblivious to the majority of these Fridays as I can’t remember having my interests piqued that frequently. But, having (semi-)recently left the university student lifestyle, I can’t be expected to remember every date. After learning in first year that you never schedule classes on a Friday (or before 11 AM on any other day), I haven’t noted the date of any Friday, Saturday, or Sunday in years! And in my last year of university Mondays or Wednesdays, either. It is safe to assume that all these Friday the 13ths that were happening came the day after a particularly festive Thursday pub night.

But wait! Did you savvy readers notice my use of italics in the previous paragraph? If you did you will expect some sort of qualifier to “at least” – as well you should! Not only do we experience Friday the 13th every year, but it could happen up to THREE TIMES per year! Obviously, if I can’t even remember this happening regularly once a year there is no way I would be able to say I was aware that it was going down three times! (I feel like the world’s most infamous date is so very sneaky!) To be fair to me, however, this phenomenon (like a comet!) has only happened once in my life, back in good old 1998. Remember 1998? The Nagano Winter Olympics came and went, a small start-up company by the name of Google was founded in California, and my little (however now enormously tall) cousin Isabel was born. Somewhere in between all of these historic events THREE Friday the 13ths passed by without  me even noticing. What was I doing on these Fridays? Let’s see, I was 13 (whoa! spooktacularly coincidental age, no?), full of life and limitless possibility…I was probably eating chips and watching Boy Meets World. Scratch that, I was definitely eating chips and watching Boy Meets World.

When is the next three-in-one-year year, you ask? Why it’s 2012! Today is the first of three Friday the 13ths that will happen this year. Take note. ‘Tis an historic event! This won’t happen again in our lifetime! Oh, what’s that you say? It will happen again in 2015? Uh, oh. All right. But after that, surely not for some time, right? No? It happens quite regularly?* Oh, bother. Hey, look down here, it’s a photo!

Please enjoy a few more facts that seem impressive until you realise they are so very simply just how a calendar works.

• Any month that starts on a Sunday will  have a Friday the 13th.
• The 13th of any month is statistically slightly more likely to fall on a Friday than any other day because there are more Fridays in a cycle than any other day (according to the Gregorian 400-year cycle, having 688 Fridays, one more than the next most common days, Wednesday and Sunday).
• On average, there is a Friday the 13th once every 212.35 days (that .35 is where the Leap Year stuff really comes in handy).
• The longest period that can occur without a Friday the 13th is fourteen months, either from July to September the following common year or from August to October the following leap year.
• If a 31-day month contains a Tuesday the 13th, the following month will contain a Friday the 13th.

I’d like to move on from numbers now, which we already know are my nemesis, to words. My precious, understanding, comforting, oh so beautiful words.

Phobia comes from the Greek phobos meaning fear, but not just any old fear, an irrational, anxiety-ridden, extreme fear. The kind that keeps you from any sort of functionality. So, for all you people missing the Christmas holidays already and looking for one last long-weekend to ease the transition, consider friggatriskaidekaphobia. The fear of Friday the 13th. Frigga is named for the Norse goddess, from whom we got the name Friday, which leaves triskaideka to mean 13, obviously. So, try this on your boss today. Tell him/her you suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia and he/she might let you off for the day. If not in sympathy for your crippling phobia, for your impressive ability to pronounce that word with relative ease (discounting your nervous stutter, of course).

But who decided that Friday the 13th would be a bad thing? Don’t we love Fridays? It’s pretty well-known that the number 13 is meant to be unlucky. The internet explains this by saying the number 12 is supposed to represent completeness. And 13 being one too many, disturbs this completeness and ruins everything.  Basically, 13 is like that kid at the pool party who puts his sopping-wet hand into the bag of chips. RUINER! But why Friday?

Well, Spanish speaking countries still love Fridays. They believe that Tuesday the 13th is where all the trouble lies. In Spanish, martes, as well as in French, mardi, the word Tuesday is associated with the Roman god of war Mars. And war is bad. As is the number 13. Put those together? You’ve got yourself a bad day.

It’s not all bad, though. Research from the Netherlands has found that Friday the 13th is one of the safest days of any year, with fewer accidents, fires, and reports of theft than any other Friday. This is said to be because people are more cautious on a Friday the 13th, being hyper-aware that something may go wrong. People are just less likely to leave their homes; subsequently driving accidents decrease by about 300 on the average on these days. Score one for the Dutch.

This may not have determined once and for all what Friday the 13th is or why it’s supposed to be spooky, if in fact it is, but one thing is for sure: Friday the 13th happens a lot, no matter how frequently you notice it. And it’s not about to stop any time soon. In fact, we’ve got two more coming up in April and July. So enjoy them, don’t enjoy them, take a trip to the Netherlands and don’t get in any sort of legal trouble, whatever you want because TGIF!

* Update: I looked into it, because not having a three-in-one-year year between 1998 and 2012 and then having one only three years later in 2015 seemed a little strange, turns out there have been LOADS of three-in-one-year years. And in fact several while I have been alive. Damn you, Wikipedia. My profs were right about you.

** Second Update: I have just been informed that there are THIRTEEN weeks in between each Friday the 13th in this year. OOoooOOOOooo!