Tomorrow is an ominous day for many: Friday the 13th. It’s a day of bad luck, terror or taboo. But what makes Friday the 13th such a foreboding date? Anna Lardinois is an expert in all things ghostly or sinister and she shares the legends of Friday the 13th.
She starts by explaining that there is a phobia of the number 13 called triskaidekaphobia.
Lardinois adds that studies say 10% of Americans are fearful of the number 13 and 8% are fearful of Friday the 13th.
The legend of the number 13 and Friday the 13th being unlucky goes back even before biblical times, she continues.
"We see the Code of Hammurabi, it is an ancient list of laws from 1754 B.C. and in that list of 282 laws of the land, they've omitted the number 13. So fear of this number goes back all that way," Lardinois explains.
She continues that Judas was the 13th apostle at the last supper. Adam and Eve were also ejected from the Garden of Eden on Friday.
Lardinois says there are also modern day references like the 1980s slasher series Friday the 13th. Hotels and other institutions even omit a 13th floor from some buildings. Lardinois says the legends and traditions surrounding Friday the 13th probably aren't going away anytime soon.
"I think it's so embedded in our culture it'd be difficult to say which came first: the unluckiness of the number or that we give reverence to the bad luck," she says.
