Good Question: Where did the superstition around Friday the 13th come from?

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Today is January 13, 2023, a Friday...Friday the 13th. That’s a date that makes many people uncomfortable. But why? That’s the topic of today’s Good Question.

For today’s Good Question, Sean asks, where did the superstition around Friday the 13th come from?

If you are someone who suffers from friggatriskaidekaphobia, the fear of Friday the 13th, know that you are not alone.

Historians believe the fear of the number 13 could go back thousands of years.

In Norse mythology, Loki, the god of mischief, crashed a banquet in Valhalla that brought the number of gods in attendance to 13.

At the Last Supper, there were 13 participants, the last one being Judas.

As for connecting the number to Friday, the most popular cause comes from 1907, when Thomas W. Lawson wrote a book, “Friday, the Thirteenth,” about a stockbroker who plays on other people’s superstitions to make money.

The connection continued to grow, most famously in the early 80s, when the “Friday the 13th” movie series cemented the date’s notoriety.

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