What's the deal with "Friday the 13th" (not the movie)

[Don Draper]

Why is it that when (supposedly) the thirteenth day of the month is a Friday, bad luck follows? What's the origin of this superstition?

[dolphinboy]

Everything you ever wanted to know... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th

[LVgeogeek]

According to the Wiki article

Both the number thirteen and Friday have been considered unlucky:

* In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, the twelve tribes of Israel etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular transgressing this completeness.[2]
* Friday, as the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified, has been viewed both positively and negatively among Christians.

Despite the onus on the two separated elements, there is no evidence for a link between the two before the 19th century. The earliest reference occurs in a 1869 biography on Gioachino Rossini:

[Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; and if it be true that, like so many other Italians, he regarded Friday as an unlucky day, and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday, the 13th of November, he died.[3]

However, only in the 20th century did the superstition receive greater audience, as Friday the 13th doesn't even merit a mention in E. Cobham Brewer's voluminous 1898 edition of the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, though one does find entries for "Friday, an Unlucky Day" and "Thirteen Unlucky." When the date of ill fate finally does make an appearance in later editions of the text, it is without extravagant claims as to the superstition's historicity or longevity.[4]

Though the superstition may have developed only recently, much older origins are often claimed for it, most notably in the novel The Da Vinci Code (and later the film), which traced the belief to the arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday October 13, 1307.[4]

[samclem]

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...3&postcount=31

A previous SDMB thread about this, which will add a bit to the discussion.

[Duckster]

Snopes article.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

The fact that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were born on Friday the 13th should pretty much end the discussion.

[Don Draper]

Originally Posted by dolphinboy

Everything you ever wanted to know... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th

[HomerSimpsonvoice]Wikipedia! Is there anything it DOESN'T know?[/HSvoice]

[Exapno Mapcase]

I once read a theory that Columbus did not spot America on October 12, but on a Friday, October 13. He therefore backdated the day in his journal so the find wouldn't be considered unlucky.

There are many things wrong with this theory, the top one being that the second Friday in October in 1492 was the 12th, not the 13th.

Just goes to show the lengths to which superstititious mania will drive people.

[KGS]

Originally Posted by FoieGrasIsEvil

The fact that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were born on Friday the 13th should pretty much end the discussion.

Ah, but so was Black Sabbath. So it all evens out.

[C K Dexter Haven]

And: Why is the number 13 considered unlucky?

[Tammi Terrell]

The earliest reference occurs in a 1869 biography on Gioachino Rossini:

[Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; and if it be true that, like so many other Italians, he regarded Friday as an unlucky day, and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday, the 13th of November, he died.

You know, I have to take issue with Wikipedia's claim that this is the earliest reference to a superstitious view of Friday the 13th. (Rossini, by the way, died in 1868.) There are certainly examples in French that predate this 1869 sighting (what follows, for example, are retrievable via Google Books).

Baudelaire's "L'Examen de minuit" (1863) contains this,

La pendule, sonnant minuit,
Ironiquement nous engage
À nous rappeler quel usage
Nous fîmes du jour qui s'enfuit:
— Aujourd'hui, date fatidique,
Vendredi, treize, nous avons,
Malgré tout ce que nous savons,
Mené le train d'un hérétique.

Chivot and Duru, playwrights of "Bloqué!; Vaudeville en un Acte" (1859), have César exclaiming,

[J]e n'ai jamais en de chance de ma vie ... Je suis né un vendredi, treize! [...] Quand je disais ... Fatalité ... Vendredi, trieze!"

Lettres du Maréchal de Saint-Arnaud by Arnaud-Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud (1855) contains the recognition that for the superstitious a Friday the 13th constitutes a double-whammy:

Le vendredi 13! ... Quel augure pour le superstitieux, un vendredi! ... Un 13! ... et ce jour-là a été un des plus beaux de ma vie ...

Similarly, Magasin Théatral, a collection published in 1834 reproducing plays then running in Paris, contained "Les Finesses de Gribouille," in which a character states,

Je suis né un vendredi, treize décèmbre, 1813, d'où viennent tous mes mal-malheurs!

I think it's likely we could also find examples in Spanish and Italian writings from the same period. Which is not to say that proves that a distrust of Friday the 13th was particularly prevalent in the first half of the 19th century, but only that it did exist on the continent, at least in popular works, and was probably more commonplace in Catholic countries on the continent than in English-speaking states elsewhere.

I believe other instances probably are to be found in still earlier French writings, especially in private documents, such as letters and diary entries. (Obviously, these written examples would've been products of those who had reason to keep track of dates or at least be aware of dates, things not particularly important to those more concerned with the actual day of the week than the date of the day.)

-- Tammi Terrell