How Friday the 13th Works

with me as always prison couldn't live without him. You put the two of us together, you get a lumpy little podcast called Stuff you Should Know, right, Chuck. And that's what you guys are listening to now. And if you are listening to this on its original publishing date, you should be nervous because that means that tomorrow is Friday. Indeed, and before we really get started, Chuck, I think we should give a proper shout out to two of our listeners,

Camera Clark and Party Gabriel. Right, this is actually a listeners suggestion. Yes, this is our second one. The first one's body Armory. Yeah, um and uh. Both the Cameron and Party independently suggested that we do a podcast on Friday thirteen, and um, we haven't gotten to the bottom whether or not they're separated at birth or anything like that. But it's a swell, Ida it is. It is so here we are right the day before. So chuck, Um,

I'm well, actually I'm a terribly superstitious person. I can't really say that I'm not, but I know people who aren't that still kind of take a little extra measure of caution when Friday the thirteenth rolls around, right? Are you like that? Uh? No, I'm not really that superstitious, and I don't really think about Friday. It's not even on your mind. No. I mean I realized that if I look at the calendar, but I don't think two things about it. Okay, one thing, I am of less

intellect than you know, you're just more superstitious. That's the same thing. Um, So Chuck, I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's actually the a phobia. There's a genuine phobia. I don't consider myself having a phobia, but there is a phobia on the books. And this is all you, buddy, It is all me. And that word that phobia is Paris skevit Eco tree a phobia.

That is awesome, thank you very hard. It looks like the alphabet when I look at the word it is, it's it looks like the cyrillic alphabet almost right, it's like all consonants. Um. But that is the actual fear of Friday the thirteenth. And people actually do suffer from this phobia. Um. One of the weird things about it is it is this particular phobia. Paris skebat Eca tree a phobia is um a cultural completely cultural construct Western very much. So yeah again with yeah, so let's let's

get into this. Why do people hate thirteen? First of all, have you noticed in our building? Um, there's no thirteenth floor marked on the elevator, right, even though there is a thirteenth floor, it is marked fourteen right, Okay, but yes, it's still a thirteenth floor. You can call it whatever you want. I know, teen. Yeah, you can put lipstick on a hockey, mom, and you know, still a pit poll so um. And it's not just floors and buildings.

Hotels often don't have a room thirteen, planes don't have It's that's just weird, right, it's weird. It's unusual to me that it's placed such a role in our culture that they actually go out of their way to do this. Yeah, and let me give you one more, Uh, Little League Baseball, when I wore the number thirteen, zero point zero zero batting average for the season, hit in the head twice. So it's entirely possible that thirteen isn't a very good number,

possibly an untoward number. It's possible that you stink at baseball. That's actually much more likely. But okay, so anyway, this is old, and like you said, it's it's rooted in in Western culture. And actually the fear of Friday the thirteenth is the convergence actually of two superstitions and Friday. Yeah, we haven't liked either of those things for a while.

And uh, it's not just uh, it's this Western conception of Friday the thirteenth being uh a nervous a nervous date Um is actually rooted in Norse mythology and Christianity, and they seem very separate, but they actually came together, um, and one played off of the other to develop this current fear we have. So you want to you want to take it, well, I can tell you a little bit about about the Norse aspect of it. Um. In Norse mythology, there was a hero called Balder, and Balder

was killed at a banquet by another god, Loki. Did you ever read Marvel store comics, Loki was always the bad guy. Yeah. Yeah, And so Balder was killed by Loki, who basically crashed Balder's party. It was a dinner party of twelve and he was the thirteenth guest. So that story when you tie into Christianity, the Last Supper Um, Judas who betrayed Christ was guest. Yeah. So one of the common um fears is are common things that's never

go to a dinner party of thirteen. Yeah, it just seems like a good rule of thumb after you know,

those two very monumental um experiences in history under those circumstances. Um. Okay, So so you said that that kind of ties in this Last Supper and then this banquet in in christian Uh, in the Christian religion in Norse mythology, right, Um, And there's there's actually a kind of a school of thought out there, and um it basically says that Judaism, Christianity, and pretty much everything that came after that is rooted in ancient Egyptian religion. Did you know this? I did not.

You're schooling me. Okay, you're ready. So there's this guy named Tom Harper. He's an atorium and he compiled a book in two thousand four called Pagan Christ. And you can make an argument that he gets a little too granular, like he's he's proved his point too much, and perhaps

he's being led to see what he wants to see. Um. But basically what he's he are, he argues, is that UM, Christianity and Judaism Uh just basically took popular beliefs that have been around for centuries thanks to the chemites the ancient Egyptians, specifically between Christianity and the ancient Egyptian mythology. UM. Horace, who's like the main guy right, which we'll get too later, and listener, Horace and Jesus Christ bearer a very striking resemblance. UM.

Just some of the details. First of all, their their embodiment, they're they're like the savior of mankind under each religion. But then there's details too, like um, both were born in stables. UM. Both both births were heralded by stars. UM. Both had the ability to raise the dead Um and Uh. But the births of both of them were witnessed by shepherds.

It just kind of goes on and on, and he he finds a couple of hundred comparisons, and as you as you look at some of you're like, yeah, you know, that's kind of a stretch, but some of your like are these are really close? Right? And it's not like the ancient Egyptians were um Or without contact with anybody. The Greeks learned Um, most of what they knew about mathematics and astronomy and all that from the Egyptian. So all these people were interacting. It's entirely possible. The thing

is is Harper doesn't necessarily manage to prove anything. He illuminates a bunch of stuff, which I think was his intention. Um, but it does underlie or undermine this UM, this competition that it seems like the early Christian Church had with

everybody else. Right. Um. If you look at one of the one of the parallels between Horse Um and Uh Christ, their births were celebrated around the same time UM, and people point out that things like the choice of when Christmas lies on Um or when Easter lies on these were kind of placed around the time of pagan holidays to compete with them, so people wouldn't would have to choose. They couldn't go, well, I'm gonna be pagan on this date and then you know, a month down the road,

I could to have Christmas. Two. That's not good, right if you're going to try to get everybody to your flock. Um. And one of the one of the pagan groups that were heavily targeted by the Early Church, where the Norse and what there's a there's an idea that thirteen. They already didn't like thirteen. But the Norse were also very um they venerated women. Uh, and the Early Church was

not big into women having power of any kind. So um Frigga, who was actually Balder, the hero Balder's mother, she um used to show up at witch covens, so there'll be twelve witches and she'd bete under Christian cosmology, and he time you've got twelve, which is the thirteenth, one is going to be the devil exactly. They were all these um this competition created all of this um accepted ideas in one culture were you know, horrible and

and bad and under Christianity, it was competition. Right, that's good stuff. Thanks a lot. I'm impressed. Okay, So, um, Friday, the day Friday actually in Christianity is also unlucky, considered to be unlucky. Yes, you want to take that. Sure, Um, supposedly Christ was crucified on a Friday, not say supposedly, that's what they say. And uh, some theologians, theologians excuse me, say that Adam and Eve eight the forbidden Fruit on

a Friday. So that's another bad mark against it. The Great Flood began on a Friday when Noah built the Ark and flooded the earth. No, it didn't flood the earth, he built the arc. And uh. A lot of Christians in the past would not begin any new project or trip on a Friday because they thought it would be doomed. Yeah. So you take that Friday and you take the thirteen and you marry them. And a lot of people think that that's why Friday thirteenth came about. Is badness? Yeah?

So is that the case? I mean, is that is that true? Is there badness to it? Well, it depends on who you ask. Um. There have been studies here and there there was one in nine the British medical journal UH published one I love this title is Friday

thirteenth Bad for your Health? And they compared a ratio of traffic volume to the number of automobile accidents on Friday to six and Friday over a period of several years, and what they found out was consistently fewer people chose to drive on Friday, but the number of hospital admissions due to UH car accidents went up compared to a normal Friday. Did did they conclude that it was possibly because people were a little more on edge on Friday thirte or what? I think that that was one of

the conclusions. Yeah, which sort of makes But that is strange that there is a an increase on pay right, which goes back to the thing that you were talking about with Harper. Perhaps you're looking. When you're looking for something, you're bound to find it. I remember And did you see the movie Pie, Yes, Darren Aronovski's first film, Drill to the Head. Yeah, that was tough. Um, they've raised

a similar thing. And you know when the old the old guy kind of assaulted the dude and said, you know, if you look for any number, you're gonna find it. If the number in your head is twenty four you're gonna find twenty four steps to your apartment twenty four Uh times that you used a whisk to beat the eggs, that kind of thing. So perhaps that plays a part as well. Yeah, there's a psychological bias. I guess right, you're preparing yourself. You're looking harder than usual. Right, that

makes sense. Well, um, you know, if you went to Italy on Friday the thirteenth, you would probably find very few people who, um, were particularly moved by it. True in Italy, actually the unlucky number seventeen because under Roman numerals that would be what X V I I, and if you rearrange them to v I x I, that is he lived and it's past tense. And you often find that on gravestones. Seventeen is an unlucky number. Try scaring somebody around here with seventeen. It's not gonna happen.

They'll just blink it you a little bit and walk away. Yeah. I've got another couple of examples of thirteen being a good thing. Uh. And Judaism thirteen is and is the age at which a boy matures into a man. And you have your bar mitzvah. So that's good. Uh. Colgate University, did you know this one? No? I didn't share this one. They are a liberal, liberal arts college in New York,

a state, and they love the number thirteen. The tradition there they said Colgate was founded by thirteen men with thirteen dollars and thirteen prayers and thirteen articles and universities actually at thirteen Oak Drive. So every Friday thirteenth they throw a big party basically and really embrace it and where the school colors in that kind of thing. That's

pretty cool. So they're gonna have one tomorrow then, h yeah, you know, yeah some excuse me, someone's at Colgate University right now listening to this and they're swelling some keg beer to Friday thirteenth. I think that'd be pretty cool. So, you know, in Japan and China with the unlucky number, isn't it for it is four? Because apparently in both languages, and I'm surprised to hear this um in both languages, the pronunciation of the number four is very very much

similar to the pronunciation for the word death. So you may not find a four on like a menu and a Chinese restaurant or something like that. Right, I'm going to keep an eye out actually in the future. See if there's a four that's like the number four meal and a Chinese menu that Yeah, maybe it's happy family. Maybe. So I got a few more thirteens for you, if

you're if you're patient. Uh. In the world of sports, there have been some very famous, awesome athletes that wore the number thirteen, So you would think it would not be unlucky. Damn Marino one of the best quarterbacks to ever play, but one of the best quarter x to ever play and not win a Super Bowl. Yeah, it makes you wonder how much better he would have been had he not warn't thirteen? Right Alex, first thing that comes to my mind, Sure, Alex Rodriguez, famous baseball player

right now for the New York Yankees. He could be a superstar. He is a superstar and he wears the number thirteen. But the Yankees have not been to a World Series since he joined their roster. That is interesting. Two four, even though they have the powerhouse all star lineup, So maybe that's unlucky. And Will Chamberlain is thirteen, but he wants all kinds of things, So yeah, I'd say that is lucky in that case. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard people say the third the number thirteen is a lucky number,

but that's not my experience. I'm among you know, a Rod and Dan Marino is is just a failed sports figure who to the number thirteen? Well, I don't know if I could call them failed sports figures. They he has a batting average very much higher than zero point zero. Uh. Friday thirteenth films, Sure you've seen some of these. There have been twelve, including the ones they haven't. Yes, they've

made twelve of those. Well, there there were eleven original films, including the Freddy versus Jason thing that was pretty much terrible. But tomorrow actually is the release of the remake of the original. Yes, and that makes the fourth one in the series to be released on Friday. Wow, so it's good marketing. So this is twelve. This is the number

of the twelfth one. Surely they're going to make it to thirteen, right, Well, they're probably gonna start remaking them all, I would say if this is successful, and this year there are three Friday the thirteenths actually, which is kind of unusual, and two months in a row, February and March, which is very unusual. So that's good stuff. I agree. And I got one more for you. The band Black Sabbath. I love Sabbath. Yea, we both do. They released their

debut album and on February Friday, February. That seems like something they would do. Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah. Isn't that crazy. They've been around since seventy Yeah. Isn't it crazy that Ozzie can still walk barely? Yeah? Well, that's funny that you bring up the calendar, Chuck, because I've got one last little snippet. M One of the reasons why Friday is a problem is because we moved to a solar

calendar under Pope Gregory the Fifth. I think, yeah, okay, so he he commanded that we moved to a solar calendar from a lunar calendar. Again paganism. Uh and and because in the pagan culture and in the pagan calendar, there are actually thirteen months based on the lunar cycle, which is connected to the menstrual cycle, which again, gotta get away from women. There you have it. I'm not gonna go there. So this Friday the thirteenth, in February,

Friday thirteenth in March. That wouldn't have happened had we stayed with the original Pagan lunar calendar. Interesting, yes, well, love you. These are all nice little tidbits. This was full of water cooler type of that's because there's absolutely nothing to Friday. The third Team, Well, that's one of the main points though, is is even though there's all these ancient things that's rooted in the modern fear or Friday,

evidently most people don't even know these ancient things. So it's pretty much just one of those things has been created two for our enjoyment. Nothing to it for basically one way to get make it through the day on a Friday. It's a little more on guard than ever. So there you go. Will you guys be safe just in case, Just in case, this Friday, the next Friday thirteenth, and all Friday thirteenth. We want you around to listen to our sweet voices for as long as possible, So

don't leave your home. All right, we'll chuck. Do you have any listener mail? I do, but I believe we have in our sponsor needs to chime in first. Oh, yeah, let's do that. You want to Yeah, let's kick it off audible dot com. Yes. Actually, if everybody goes to um audible podcast dot com slash stuff, they can sign up, they can register and they'll immediately be eligible for one free download right, which is a book on tape or everything anything you can conceive of that you could make

into audio. They've got it right. There's like fifty titles, lots of titles. And I went online. I was browsing and they have my favorite detective novel of all time, Dassel Hammett's multese Falcon, and they have it in several different forms. They have a dramatized form and in a couple of different ones. But they have like the straight you know novel read aloud um which I'm actually looking forward to giving who reads it? You know I do? And I don't remember his name, but it's no one

i'd heard of. Okay, well, I'm gonna recommend and you're gonna say, you hippie, I'm gonna recommend Jack Caro Wax on the Road, you hippie. It's you know, the classic beat generation novel, and I'm gonna recommend it because it's read by David Carradine. Awesome Kane of Kung Fu himself reads and Bill from kill Bill. Yeah, so those that's my recommendation. Yeah, you can find both of those and like we said, uh more at least um by going to audible podcast dot com backslash stuff and registering to

get your free one. So now is a listener male time think I've been made to wait long and up? Yes, So Chuck, what do you have for us, Josh, I have a listener mail that we're gonna call the Horace Firestorm of oh nine. We got a lot of emails about you messing up the fact that I believe you said. I said Horace was the god. He was the one with the dog's head, right, I didn't even have the

right animal right incient Egypt. It turns out what I should have said was Horace says the head of a jackal, if I were even going to be in the right ballpark. But that's uh Anubis, Yes, Anubis, one of the two actually has the head of a jackal, as the ancient Egyptian god with the head of a jackal Horace. And I'm sorry everybody. It turns out Horace is the one with the head of a cat. So I apologize to everybody who um no, no, no, Horace had the head of a falcon. I will not let you mislead leader

or listeners anymore. And thank you to all these people who wrote in, including set Mistra from India, Jessica Astro of Jacksonville, Florida, Logan Larson studying in France, Katherine Lee, Thomas Radkey, Chris Albrecht of KU Jayhawks Hawks, Eric s of Philadelphia, Jeremy Sheehan, Alex Clifford of Livermore, California, Rick r I c Nothing More, Tommy Sciano of the Mafia, Jason Barnhart, Andrew Smith of Jerusalem, and then my favorite, Rachel Austin and Boulder sent destruction in the form of

a hiku which we love. It is Annabus, Jackal, Horace, Sun and Moon I Falcon Egypt next podcast, So thank you Rachel for being so creative with that. Thanks to all of you. Um. Ever since the first email trickled in, I've been wearing my hair shirt, so I think I can take it off. Now, what do you think, Chuck, You have been punched. Horace is not a cat. Well, if you want to send us a podcast about ancient Egyptian gods, or anything that strikes your fancy. You can

send it to Stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. Yeah. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Mm hmm. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you