At least once a year, calendar dates align to give us Friday the 13th. Airline prices tend to drop, your superstitious boss avoids important meetings, and throughout the day, there is a small part of you. waiting for something strange to happen.
Why are we like this? Whether you’re superstitious or not, you can’t escape everything that involves the scariest date on the calendar.
Why 13?
The fear of the 13th dates back centuries and many believe it originated from the Code of Hammurabi, which allegedly omitted a 13th law from its written legal codes. However, in reality this was just a mistake made by one of the translators who simply left out a line of text.
Such superstitions persisted even among the greatest minds in history. The great Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg suffered from such a severe case of triscaidekaphobia (the fear of the number 13) that he omitted the numbering of bar 13 in some of his later works, replacing the notation “12a”.
According to reports, he also deeply feared dying in a year or at a multiple age of 13. When he turned 76, a colleague suggested that it would be an unlucky year because 7 + 6 = 13. In fact, Schoenberg died that year, in a Friday, July 13, 1951.
It is interesting to note the contrasting history of the number 12 with the number 13. We have 12 months a year, 12 zodiac signs, 12 hours a day and even 12 days of Christmas, highlighted by the historical influence of the New Testament of the Bible and other Jewish traditions. -Christians. Even Schoenberg, the number 13’s biggest enemy, was best known for developing a 12-tone musical composition system.
Why Friday?
The negative association of Friday specifically has a combination of religious and cultural backgrounds. Some Christians believe that Friday is bad luck because it was the day of the week that Jesus was crucified. In the 14th and 15th centuries, prominent figures and writers began to publicly denounce that day with little context as to why.
“The Canterbury Tales” by George Chaucer describes Friday as “a day of doom” and playwright Robert Greene defined the “Friday face” as “a sad look of consternation or anguish”.
Why Friday the 13th?
Unsurprisingly, we’re not sure of the historical evidence that made Friday the 13th synonymous with bad luck and superstition. There are many theories that go back centuries, but most of them have been completely debunked.
The real Friday the 13th hysteria began in the 20th century. Many go back to Thomas Lawson’s book, “Friday, the Thirteenth,” which is about a stockbroker who chooses this day to deliberately crash the stock market.
A year later, in 1908, The New York Times became one of the first media outlets to recognize Friday the 13th superstitions. Later, in the 1980s, the popularity of the “Friday the 13th” film franchise ” was added to the cultural phenomenon.
The science behind the superstition
One in four Americans say they are superstitious. While the other three out of four Americans might scoff at this, psychological science can actually support the superstition. Kansas State University psychologists say superstitions are about trying to control your destiny.
People often use superstitions to try to achieve a desired result or to help alleviate anxiety. A perfect example of this is the artists and athletes who perform specific and sometimes extravagant rituals before a big event.
Mathematician and author Joesph Mazur explains how having superstitions can actually promote a healthy, positive mindset.
“Everyone wants luck, but since there is nothing tangible that we can call luck, we have to create this tangible thing by transferring it to an object. People cling to these objects as a sense of security.”
A 2010 study by psychologist Stuart Vyse tested a group of people on various memory tasks. The group of people who were allowed to take their charms with them performed better on memory tests than the people who had their charms removed. “It’s all about that ‘low cost’ confidence booster,” Vyse concluded.
By this logic, Friday the 13th can be both lucky and unlucky, depending on your perspective. So instead of being scared of that mysterious date, try incorporating some positive rituals into your life and see what happens!
Source: CNN Brasil
