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Friday The 13th: The Taboo And The Culture [Video]

By Nick Younker
Published on: 07:47 PST, May 12, 2016

Friday the 13th is perhaps most well know as two different things: It is a taboo day, and it is also a Hollywood film franchise. But the taboo came long before Hollywood capitalized on it. That’s because there have been many legends and mythologies associated with it, dating all the way back to the days of Jesus Christ.

One thing that’s for sure is that people who believe in superstition avoid contact with all other people on Friday the 13th, which is only happening one day this year – tomorrow, according to Time.

Some people view Friday the 13th as just a day while others see it as an event. What is known for sure about Friday the 13th is that it is not just one single event that made it a famous day of taboo but a culmination of events that seemed to be compressed together, much like crossing the path of a black cat or walking under a ladder. It is just the type of situation where people have commonly associated Friday the 13th with bad things that happen.

Suffice it to say that there are many different accounts as to why Friday the 13th is such an ominous day of bad luck, so it is hard to narrow down just one. But there are a few events that have taken place, which can suggest they are the root cause for the taboo.

The first suggestion that Friday the 13th was a superstitious day was when researchers linked it to the Last Supper of Jesus, which took place on a Thursday. But there were 13 people at the dinner just before heading into that fateful Friday that took the life of Jesus. Some say that day became the source of the mythology behind the ominous Friday the 13th.

Dr. Phil Stevens from the University of Buffalo commented on that event and spoke about his interpretations of how society views it.

“When those two events come together, you are reenacting at least a portion of that terrible event,” Stevens told Time. “You are reestablishing two things that were connected to that terrible event.”

There are also reasons to believe that the Good Friday event also forces people to stay away from hotel rooms that are marked with the number 13. But Friday the 13th is much more than just that.

There are other accounts that some will argue are the source of the Friday the 13th mythology. But in the human psyche, it could also be the culmination of bad luck that people are simply trying to trace back to some event or some day. It is a way of rationalizing bad things that happened to them and allows them to avoid the bad luck by seeking shelter on Friday the 13th.

As a matter of fact, Friday the 13th has been such a monumental day of bad luck that Hollywood has taken the day and turned it into a franchise of hit horror films. In that franchise, a killer with a hockey mask stalks people, mostly young camp counselors or frisky teenagers, and slashes them with various weapons.

The Friday the 13th movie franchise was so successful that it spawned over 10 sequels with the killer Jason Voorhees and one remake to date. That also includes the 2003 monster mashup film Freddy vs. Jason.

But in the Friday the 13th film franchise, the series of horror movies had divested itself from the Friday the 13th moniker and focused solely on the killer. Friday the 13th Part 9 was actually titled Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday. Then there was the corny return to the franchise with the 10th installment, titled Jason X.

But in the end, the day of Friday the 13th just seems to just be coincidental for certain tragedies that seemed to be linked to it. But coincidental or not, Friday the 13th is still a day that millions of people around the world fear without a second thought.

[Image via Paramount Pictures]

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