It is a common belief that Friday the 13th is an extremely unlucky date. People believe that on this day danger literally lurks at every turn, and especially the superstitious try not to plan anything serious for this date. We decided to check whether scientific data supports this idea.

Proponents of the belief that Friday the 13th is especially unlucky cite many historical facts. So, June 13, 1947 in West Virginia (USA) crashed airliner Douglas C-54, May 13, 1949 in the Novosibirsk region suffered Il-12 crash, October 13, 1972 in the Moscow region fell Il-62 plane (this plane crash, in which 174 people died, became the most large at that time), lost control on October 13, 1972 and fell FH-227 in the Andes (survivors fought for life for 72 days and were forced there are corpses dead), on November 13, 2015 in Paris there was series of terrorist attacks, which killed 130 people. The idea that Friday the 13th is a particularly unlucky day has also been played out many times in world culture: there is film franchise "Friday the 13th" and the same name series, computer game And album British punk rock band The Damned.

Fear of Friday the 13th is a fairly common problem in the world. By assessment American folklorist Donald Dossey, in the United States alone, from 17 to 21 million people are subject to this fear. Businesses in the United States lose $800–900 million every day due to the fact that people refuse to travel, make large purchases and conclude transactions. Fear of the number 13 itself finds reflected in architecture: more than 80% of buildings in the USA miss the numbering is on the 13th floor, at airports there is often no. 14 immediately after gate No. 12, in many hospitals there is no 13th ward, and in hotels there is no 13th room. National Geographic even writes that in France existed a kind of “profession” - quatorzien (quatorzien - “fourteen”) - this was the name of a person specially invited to a dinner party so that the number of guests was not equal to 13.

Lufthansa aircraft, row 13 not available. Source

Psychologists have a special term for this phobia - paraskavedekatriaphobia. Symptoms range from mild anxiety to full-blown panic attacks. In Russia, according to a study conducted in 2009 survey, fear of Friday the 13th is less common - only every hundred people spoke about such fear, that is, in total this is about 1.5 million people.

It is not known for certain where the belief that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day came from. Researchers pay Please note that in Scandinavian mythology, 12 aesir were invited to the feast of the gods, and the 13th was Loki, who by cunning forced Höd to kill Balder and thereby provoked the offensive of Fimbulwinter, which preceded Ragnarok (the end of the world). There is also version, that this fear may be related to the Christian Good Friday and the fact that 13 people were present at the Last Supper. There is also a third hypothesis: It was supposedly believed that there were 12 witches at the Sabbath, and the 13th guest was the devil. At the same time, researchers notethat belief in an unlucky day was minimally widespread before the 19th century.

Modern scientists have repeatedly set out to find out whether it is true that on Friday the 13th more troubles of all kinds actually happen. One of the first research was published in 1993 in the authoritative scientific journal British Medical Journal (British Medical Journal, BMJ). A team of researchers from the National Health Service analyzed the number of road traffic accidents and injuries resulting from crashes on the southern part of the M25 ring road around London. They compared data collected on every Friday the 13th, as well as every Friday the 6th between 1990 and 1992, and found that on the 13th there were fewer cars on the road, statistically fewer accidents occurred, but the risk of hospitalization as a result of an accident that occurred on Friday the 13th was 52% higher. At the same time, according to their own data, the risk that any animal will injure you is three times higher on Friday the 13th, but the chance of getting poisoned or falling is slightly higher on Friday the 6th. Scientists have concluded that Friday the 13th can indeed become an unlucky day for some. However, later Robert Luben, a researcher from the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge and one of the authors of the study, paid Please note that their work was published in the Christmas issue of the magazine, and according to tradition, various funny studies are included in this issue, so it is not worth considering their analysis as the basis for justifying superstition.

Gennady Grachev from Moscow, Russia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Scientific data obtained later refutes the pattern between misfortunes and a certain day. In 2011, a team of doctors from the Department of General, Abdominal, Vascular and Pediatric Surgery at Saarland University (Germany) published their observations. They analyzed 27,914 surgical records to see if there was a pattern between Friday the 13th, lunar phases, and patients' zodiac signs and whether they required emergency intervention, increased intraoperative blood loss, or experienced perforation of the aorta or gastrointestinal tract. The observation period was nine years, during which time the 13th of the month fell on a Friday 15 times. The surgeons were unable to find any patterns, from which they concluded that the unluckiness of Friday the 13th is nothing more than a myth.

In 2012, the results of his research published American scientists from Eastern Virginia Medical School. From November 13, 2002 to December 13, 2009, they recorded the frequency and reason for visits to six urgent care centers on the following days:

- Friday the 13th;

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

- Fridays in the previous and subsequent months.

Scientists tracked various reasons for seeking help: heart attacks, cerebrovascular disorders, car accidents, animal attacks, exacerbation of psychiatric illnesses, etc. The number of calls for medical help on Friday the 13th was not higher compared to the Friday before and after, or to Fridays in the previous month. Only on Fridays of the month following the one in which Friday fell on the 13th were there slightly fewer requests than on the “unlucky” day itself. The distribution of reasons for requests also did not differ, except that on Friday the 13th people were 1.65 times more likely to contact penetrating trauma (gunshot, knife wounds, unintentional damage to the body with piercing objects). Due to the slight statistical difference with other Fridays in the case of penetrating injuries and its absence for other reasons for seeking medical help, scientists concluded that Friday the 13th is no more dangerous than other days.

In 2013, with our own observations shared by the Dutch Center for Insurance Statistics. According to them, Friday the 13th is a safer day than any other Friday. Thus, the average number of car accidents in this European country on Fridays was then 7,800, while on Friday the 13th there were only 7,500. According to statistics, there were also fewer fires and thefts. Alex Hoen, a statistician, explains it this way: “Apparently people are more careful preventatively or just stay home on this day.”

Surprisingly, air travel on Friday the 13th is statistically more safe. Having analyzed data Based on air travel deaths from 1945 to 2013, researchers estimate that on average 9.1 people die in the air per day. But on Friday the 13th, which occurred 118 times during this period, fewer people die - only 6.7 on average.

Thus, most statistics and studies indicate that Friday the 13th should not be considered an unlucky day. On the contrary, due to superstitions on this day, people are more careful and the risk of getting into trouble is generally less.

Cover image: HippoPX