The world somehow survived another Friday the 13th

By Lethbridge Herald on March 14, 2026.

MORNING JOE- Joe Manio, Lethbridge Herald

In case you weren’t paying attention, yesterday was Friday the 13th. And if you didn’t cancel any plans, avoid ladders or spend the day hoping not to encounter any black cats… congratulations.

For generations, this date has carried a reputation somewhere between “mildly unlucky” and “absolutely cursed.” Some people avoided flying on it. Others refused to sign contracts or schedule surgeries. 

Meanwhile, horror fans marked the occasion by revisiting the classic slasher film Friday the 13th and cheering on hockey-masked menace Jason Voorhees as if it were a festive tradition.

So how did one perfectly ordinary date become the calendar’s equivalent of a horror soundtrack?

Like most superstitions, it’s the result of unrelated ideas piling up over centuries until people decided they must mean something.

Start with the number 13. In many Western traditions, 12 was seen as a nice, orderly number: 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac and, according to Greek mythology, 12 major Olympian gods. In Christian tradition there were also 12 apostles gathered at the Last Supper with Jesus.

That made 13 people at the table — which, as the story goes, did not end particularly well. After Judas betrayed Jesus, the number 13 picked up a reputation as the awkward guest who ruins dinner.

Friday didn’t have the best public relations either. In Christian tradition it was believed to be the day of the crucifixion, which didn’t exactly help the weekday’s brand. Over time, folklore piled on with claims about unfortunate things supposedly happening on Fridays. Historians tend to file many of these stories under “interesting legend, thin evidence.”

Put those two together — a suspicious weekday and a number of people already side-eye — and you have the recipe for a perfectly good superstition.

A dramatic historical event is often added to the mix. On Friday, Oct. 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of members of the Knights Templar, a powerful medieval religious order. Many were imprisoned, tortured and later executed.

It sounds like the kind of grim moment that would doom a date forever. The problem is historians say people didn’t connect that event to the Friday the 13th superstition until centuries later. In other words, the story likely got attached afterward because it makes for excellent storytelling.

And humans, it turns out, really enjoy a good spooky origin story.

By the early 1900s the superstition had become mainstream enough to inspire a bestselling novel, Friday the Thirteenth about a scheme to crash the stock market on the unlucky date. From there the idea spread through newspapers, pop culture and eventually Hollywood.

Then along came the horror movie franchise that permanently linked the date with masked mayhem. Thanks to decades of sequels, Friday the 13th became less about ancient curses and more about popcorn, jump scares and yelling at characters who really should not be wandering into the woods alone.

Here’s the part that often gets overlooked: much of the world doesn’t share this fear.

In Spain and parts of Latin America, the ominous date is Tuesday the 13th. In Italy, the unlucky combination is Friday the 17th. In Jewish tradition, the number 13 is associated with positive religious symbolism.

So depending on where you live, the day might have been unlucky — or it might have just been… Friday.

Even in North America, the fear is fading. For many people, the day has turned into something closer to a novelty holiday. Tattoo shops offer Friday-the-13th specials. Horror fans plan movie marathons. Others simply point out the date dramatically whenever something minor goes wrong, like spilling coffee or forgetting a password.

Despite centuries of ominous folklore, studies have never found convincing evidence that more bad things happen on Friday the 13th than on any other day. The superstition survives mostly because humans love patterns, coincidences and stories that make the world feel a little more mysterious.

That said hopefully you eased through yesterday. You walked past the ladder. Petted the black cat. Signed the paperwork.

And the universe almost certainly continued doing what it always does: spinning along, completely indifferent to our calendar anxieties.

And if something unlucky did happen? Well… statistically speaking, it had to be someone’s Friday.