--- title: "Friday the 13th lands for the third time in 2026, but the superstition only took shape in the 1800s" url: https://badiyaa.com/friday-13th-superstition-origins/ published: 2026-11-13T04:09:00+00:00 modified: 2026-11-13T04:09:00+00:00 section: History publisher: Badiyaa --- # Friday the 13th lands for the third time in 2026, but the superstition only took shape in the 1800s Friday the 13th falls today for the third time in 2026, yet no record links Friday and 13 as one unlucky date before the 19th century. Today is the third Friday the 13th of 2026, and that is as many as any calendar year can hold. February, March and now November all landed on a Friday this year because 2026 is a common year that began on a Thursday, the one layout that packs three of them in. The next year built that way is 2037. The fear itself is far younger than its spooky reputation suggests. Western folklore treated Fridays and the number 13 as unlucky separately for centuries, but there is no surviving record of the two being joined as a single cursed date before the 1800s, according to the [documented history of the superstition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th). ## Why 13 got a bad name Two old stories carry most of the blame. In Norse myth, twelve gods sat down to a feast in Valhalla when the uninvited trickster Loki turned up as guest number 13. He arranged for the blind god Höðr to fire a mistletoe-tipped arrow at Balder, the god of joy, and Balder’s death brought grief to the world. The Christian version points to the Last Supper, where Jesus and his twelve apostles made 13 at the table on the night before the crucifixion on Good Friday. ## The Knights Templar theory A popular modern claim says it all started on Friday, October 13, 1307, when officers of King Philip IV of France arrested the Knights Templar. The link is weakly sourced, and the real origins remain murky. ## Where the paper trail actually begins The earliest clear evidence comes from 19th-century France. A character in the 1834 play *Les Finesses des Gribouilles* complains: “I was born on a Friday, December 13th, 1813 from which come all of my misfortunes.” In English, an early reference sits in H. S. Edwards’ biography of the composer Gioachino Rossini. Edwards noted that Rossini, who reportedly thought both Fridays and 13 were unlucky, died on Friday 13 November 1868. That makes today the 158th anniversary of the death that helped fix the date in print. Fiction then spread it further. Thomas W. Lawson’s 1907 novel *Friday, the Thirteenth* follows a ruthless broker who exploits the superstition to set off a panic on Wall Street, and it is often credited with taking the idea mainstream in the United States. ## The numbers behind the date Here is a calculation that surprises most people. The Gregorian calendar repeats every 400 years, or 4,800 months. Across that cycle the 13th falls on a Friday 688 times, more than on any other weekday. Divide 688 by 4,800 and you get 14.33 percent, a whisker above the 14.29 percent you would expect from a flat one-in-seven chance. In other words, the 13th is very slightly more likely to be a Friday than anything else. The fear even has a name, paraskavedekatriaphobia. A phobia clinic in Asheville, North Carolina, has estimated that 17 to 21 million Americans are affected, and that $800 million to $900 million in business is lost each time the date comes around. The data on actual bad luck is thin. In 2008, the Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics said insurers in the Netherlands logged an average of 7,800 traffic accidents on a typical Friday over two years, but only 7,500 when the Friday fell on the 13th, likely because people were more careful or stayed home. ## Not every country fears Friday - **Spain and Latin America:** the unlucky day is Tuesday the 13th, or martes trece. - **Greece:** Tuesday also carries the stigma, linked to Ares, the god of war, and to the fall of Constantinople in 1204 and 1453, both on Tuesdays. - **Italy:** Friday the 17th is the one to dread, because the Roman numeral XVII can be rearranged into VIXI, Latin for “I have lived.” - **Finland:** officials turned the date into National Accident Day, a road safety campaign held on every Friday the 13th since 1995. For more forgotten stories behind everyday dates, browse our [history section](https://badiyaa.com/category/history/). After today, the next Friday the 13th arrives in August 2027. Then comes a 14-month gap, the longest the calendar allows, before the date returns in October 2028. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Friday the 13th](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th) *Image: Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*