Why is Friday the 13th Unlucky?

As with most games of chance, lottery players often follow certain rituals when it comes to selecting their lucky numbers on the ticket. One superstition is that Friday the 13th is often seen as being an 'unlucky' day, and so people won't bother taking part in the lottery on that day. Or at least, that is what you might expect! In fact, our research has actually shown that more people play the lottery on Friday the 13th than on a regular Friday.

CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT THE NUMBER 13

Popularly, the number thirteen is known as 'the devil's dozen'. But where does the fear of this date come from? How did this day come to have such a bad reputation? We've been looking for answers to this question and wondering whether the superstition about Friday the 13th being an unlucky day is justified or not!

'LUCKY' NUMBER 13?

1. In the Middle Ages, the power of the church was undisputed and this body largely determined the lives of the people. Since it took twelve monks and one abbot to found a monastery, the number 13 was at that time regarded as being a lucky number.

2. In China, thirteen is seen as a lucky number because its pronunciation (" shisan ") sounds similar to the word "shēngzhǎng", meaning "increase" or "growth".

3. In the early days of human history, the number 13 was also viewed in a positive light. Finds from the Paleolithic period prove that the first humans organized their time with the help of lunar months. One year consisted of 364 days, based on each moon phase of 28 days long, and therefore the year was made up of 13 months.

4. In the Old Norse tradition Friday the 13th was considered lucky. Friday was named after the fertility goddess Freya and 13 was considered to be her lucky number.

5. The 13 was also a lucky number for the Teutons. According to legend, 12 lawmakers went to sea and created what became the "Frisian" law. They got into a heavy storm, when a thirteenth man appeared to them, who took the wheel and safely maneuvered them to land, where he dictated the Lex Frisionum . After that, the unknown person disappeared again.

6. The Jewish religion doesn't associate Friday with any special meaning. The number 13, on the other hand, is a lucky number because the number 13 represents the number of principles of the Jewish faith. 13 is also the age at which boys are received into the church and celebrate their bar mitzvah.

7. As a final positive association with 13, we come to the '13th' monthly salary which some companies dole out at the end of the year. Nobody wants to do without that because of superstition!

'UNLUCKY' NUMBER 13?

8. In Christianity, 13 is considered to be an unlucky number. The explanation is obvious: he Bible names twelve apostles, but at the Last Supper thirteen people sat at the table with Jesus, and of course the thirteenth person present was the traitorous Judas Iscariot.

Friday, too, is considered an unlucky day. Jesus Christ was crucified on Good Friday and Adam and Eve are said to have eaten the forbidden apple on a Friday as well.

9. In the Tarot, the card "Death" ("La mort" ) is represented by the number 13, where death stands for the dreaded (or longed-for) end of a situation, but also for physical death.

10. In 19th century France, there was a profession with the title "Quatorzième " (the fourteenth). This was a professional guest who was invited to social events whenever only thirteen guests were invited to sit at the table. The 14th 'guest' helped to avoid any misfortune which may have arisen from having such an unlucky number of guests. 

The sinister thirteenth guest also appears in pagan mythology. It was said that on one occasion twelve gods were dining in the warrior's paradise of Valhalla, when the god Loki unexpectedly appeared. As a result of the dispute which erupted, Baldur, the god of beauty, died. Upon his death darkness settled over the earth.

11. The American response to the superstition of the French was the so-called "thirteen club ". In the early 1880s, thirteen people - on a Friday the 13th, naturally - founded this group in New York. On the 13th of each month, the members met for dinner together. After a year, the participants announced proudly that all 13 dinner guests were still alive.

12. The term Triskaidekaphobia comes from the Greek and consists of the words treiskaídeka (thirteen) and fóbos (fear) together. This describes the superstitious and pathological anxiety that some people experience about the number 13. Those affected avoid everything connected with this number.

This is also the reason that in some buildings no 13th floor can be found or no 13th row in airplanes. There are also hotels and hospitals where no room is numbered 13.

SUPERSTITIONS AROUND THE WORLD

Famous people who suffered from this phobia were Christopher Columbus, Napoleon, Mark Twain, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. The latter even refused to sit in the thirteenth row of a plane or theatre.

JRR Tolkien, author of the  Lord of the Rings trilogy, also addresses this fear in his books. In his story "The Hobbit" he lets Bilbo Baggins become the 14th companion as they embark on their dangerous journey so as to protect the group from dangers on their mission.

13. If the fear is related not only to the number 13, but also to the connection with Friday, it is called Paraskevidekatriaphobia.

The superstition that the combination between the number 13 and Friday bringing bad luck is a relatively new one. Right up until the middle of the nineteenth century there was no connection. Neither in legends, fairy tales or other ancient writings do they both come together to signify misfortune. Historians believe that the origin of this combination dates back to the late 19th or early 20th century and was invented by writers.

In some countries of Latin America, as well as Spain and Greece, 13 is also considered to be an unlucky number, but Tuesday the 13th - not Friday - is believed to be the unluckiest day.

WHAT DO THE LOTTERY STATISTICS SAY?

When we ran some statistical analysis based on a number of international lotteries, we disovered that the most commonly drawn numbers were 23, 27, 32, 33, 38 & 40. Number 13 proved to be one of the least drawn numbers across the eight lotteries that we looked at. Does that mean that 13 really is an unlucky number? Many of us have superstitions, but modern lottery draws are completely random, so 13 has just as much chance of appearing as any other number. Check back in 20 years time and 13 could easily be one of the most commonly drawn numbers instead of one of the rarest. 

Various studies have also shown that more people participate in those lottery draws that fall on a Friday the 13th than on a regular Friday. Despite the negative connotations that some have about this date, in reality it seems to trigger an optimistic impulse, at least where lotteries are concerned. Expressed in figures this means that in Lottoland, (for example), on every Friday the 13th, about 14% more lottery bets are made than on other Fridays with comparably high jackpots.

Those who have now chosen Friday the 13th to be their personal lucky day may want go for the jackpots available from the EuroJackpot lottery. If that's the case then make a note in your diary as in 2018 the next dates to watch for are Friday, April 13th and Friday, July 13th. We wish you all the best of luck!

Last updated: April 2018