Why are so many afraid of Friday the 13th?

Friday the 13 th has always been a day of superstition. NewsChannel 21 spoke to an expert to tell us about its history.

“Friday the 13th (worries) started to spread before the First World War, and then in the decades after the First World War, and became a popular belief,” said Professor Philip Hiscock of Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada, who has a background in folklore.

Hiscock also said two unlucky ideals came together in the 20 th century to underscore the superstitions surrounding Friday the 13 th .

“With Friday the 13th, we know there’s an old idea that 13 is unlucky, and there’s also separately an idea that Friday is unlucky,” Hiscock said.

Some believe it has roots in Christianity.

“There were 13 at the Last Supper, and one of them died, and thus it’s always unlucky to have 13 at a table,” he said. “And because Friday was the day Jesus was crucified, it’s an unlucky day — and coming together, people will say that’s part of the folklore of the explanation.”

Other theories say it arose from anti-superstition clubs that gathered back in the 1930s to discuss folklore.

But Hiscock blames it, primarily, on the media.

“It was popularized by people like you!” the professor said. “Before TV, but it was the newspapers. And we see this a lot throughout the centuries that really wouldn’t exist very broadly except that the media pick it up and make a big deal out of it.”

There’s even a scientific term for it: paraskevidekatriaphobia. (It’s not triskaidekaphobia, which is fear of the number 13.)