The belief is widespread that Friday, the 13th is an extremely unhappy date. People believe that it is on this day that danger literally lies in wait at every step, and especially the superstitious try not to plan anything serious on this date. We decided to check whether this idea confirms scientific data.

Supporters of the beliefs of the special unhappiness of Friday, the 13th give many historical facts. So, on June 13, 1947 in Western Virginia (USA) Shattered Airliner Douglas C-54, May 13, 1949 in the Novosibirsk region He suffered Cracing IL-12, October 13, 1972 in the Moscow Region fell IL-62 aircraft (this plane crash, in which 174 people died, became itself large At that time), October 13, 1972 lost control and fell FH-227 in the Andes (surviving 72 days fought for life and were forced There are corpses dead), November 13, 2015 in Paris occurred A series of terrorist attackswhose victims were 130 people. The idea that Friday, 13th is a particularly unhappy day, is also repeatedly beaten in world culture: exists Film Franchiza "Friday, 13th", as well as the same name series, computer game And album The British punk rock of The Damned.

Fear of Friday, the 13th is a fairly common problem in the world. By assessment American folklorist Donald Dossy, only in the United States from 17 to 21 million people are subject to this fear. A business in the USA loses $ 800-900 million each such day due to the fact that people refuse travel, make large purchases and conclusion of transactions. Fear of the number itself 13 Finds Reflection in architecture: more than 80% of buildings in the USA Passing In the numbering of the 13th floor, in airports, it often immediately after reaching landing No. 12 follows No. 14, many hospitals do not have the 13th chamber, and in the hotels there are 13th rooms. National Geographic even writes that in France existed The peculiar “profession” - Kyatorzien (Quatorzien - “fourteen”) - this is the name of a person who was specially invited to the dinner, so that the number of guests would not be 13.

The aircraft of the airline Lufthansa, the 13th row is not provided. Source

Psychologists have a special term for this phobia - Paraska -Bedecatriafobia. Symptoms vary from easy anxiety to full -fledged panic attacks. In Russia, according to the held in 2009 survey, Fear of Friday, the 13th is less common-only every hundredth spoke of such fear, that is, in total it is about 1.5 million people.

It is not known for reliably where the faith came from the fact that Friday, the 13th is an unhappy day. Researchers Turn The attention is that in Scandinavian mythology, 12 aces were invited to the feast of the gods, and the 13th became Loki, who was cunningly forced the hat to kill Baldra and thereby provoked the offensive of Fimbulvinter, who preceded Ragnaroy (the end of the world). There is also versionthat this fear can be connected with the Christian passionate Friday and the fact that 13 people were present at the secret evening. There is a third hypothesis: It was supposedly believed that there were 12 witches on the Sabbath, and his 13th guest is the devil. At the same time, researchers Markthat faith on an unhappy day until the 19th century was widespread.

Modern scientists have repeatedly set out to find out whether it is true that on Friday, the 13th, there really is more all kinds of troubles. One of the first such research It was published in 1993 in the authoritative scientific journal British Medical Journal (British Medical Journal, BMJ). A group of researchers from the National Health Service analyzed the number of accidents and injuries obtained as a result of accidents in the southern part of the M25 ring highway around London. They compared the data obtained on every Friday, 13th, as well as every Friday, 6th from 1990 to 1992, and found out that the 13th cars on the road are less, the accident is statistically less often, but the risk of hospitalization that occurred on Friday, the 13th, higher by 52%. Moreover, according to their same data, the risk that any animal will injure you, on Friday, the 13th higher three times, but to poison or fall a chance slightly higher on Friday, the 6th. Scientists concluded that Friday, the 13th can really become unhappy for some in the afternoon. At the same time, Robert Lyuben, a researcher from the clinical medicine of the University of Cambridge and one of the authors of the study, later, Turned The attention that their work was published in the Christmas issue of the magazine, and according to tradition, various funny studies include this issue, so you should not consider their analysis as a basis for justification of superstition.

Gennady Grachev from Moscow, Russia, CC by 2.0Via Wikimedia Commons

The scientific data obtained later refute the pattern between misfortunes and a certain day. In 2011, a team of doctors from the department of general, abdominal, vascular and children's surgery of the University of Sarah (Germany) published their observations. They analyzed the protocols of 27,914 surveys to understand whether there is a pattern between Friday, 13th, lunar phases and zodiac signs of patients, and the fact that they required emergency intervention, intraoperative blood loss increased or aortic or gastrointestinal tract occurred. The observation period was nine years, during this time 15 times the 13th day of the month fell on Friday. The surgeons could not find any patterns from which they concluded that the inconsistent of Friday, the 13th-nothing more than a myth.

In 2012, the results of his research Published American scientists from the Medical School of East Virginia. From November 13, 2002 to December 13, 2009, they recorded the frequency and the cause of appeals in six emergency centers on the following days:

-Friday, 13th;

-Friday a week before and a week after Friday, 13th;

- Fridays in the previous and subsequent month.

Scientists have monitored various reasons for the help of help: heart attacks, cerebrovascular disorders, automobile accidents, animal attacks, exacerbation of psychiatric diseases, etc. The number of appeals for medical care on Friday, the 13th was not higher compared to Fridays before and after, as well as on Fridays in the previous month. Only on Fridays, following the one in which Friday fell on the 13th, the appeals were slightly less than on the "unlucky" day itself. The distribution of the causes of appeals also did not differ, except that it was on Friday, the 13th people 1.65 times more often treated penetrating injury (gunshot, knife wounds, non-mild damage to the body with piercing-cutting objects). Due to the insignificant statistical difference with other Fridays in the case of penetrating injuries and its absence for other reasons for seeking medical help, scientists came to the conclusion that Friday, the 13th is no more dangerous than other days.

In 2013, observations The Dutch Center for Insurance Statistics shared. According to them, Friday, the 13th is a safer day than any other Friday. So, the average number of car accidents in this European country on Fridays was then 7800, while on Friday, the 13th-only 7500 fires and thefts according to statistics also occurred. Alex Kohen, a specialist in statistics, explains this: "Apparently, people are preventive more careful or just stay at home on this day."

Surprisingly, also air travel on Friday, 13th statistically more Safe. Analyzing data The researchers calculated the deaths during the air travel for the period from 1945 to 2013, that on average, 9.1 people per day die in the air. But on Friday, the 13th, which during this period fell as much as 118 times, less people die-only 6.7 on average.

Thus, most statistical data and research indicates what to consider Friday, the 13th unhappy day is not worth it. On the contrary, due to superstitions on this day, people are more careful and the risk of falling into troubles as a whole is less.

Image on the cover: Hippopx