Associating 13 with bad luck 'has to do with just being a little beyond completeness,' he noted. The number 12 is considered a 'complete' number by numerologists, as it relates to the 12 months in a year, the 12 zodiac signs, the 12 gods of Olympus, and more. The asteroid named Apophis, which was once thought to be a collision course with Earth will fly by us in six years to the date. Thomas Fernsler, an associate policy scientist at the University of Delaware in Newark, told National Geographic that 13 gets a bad rap because it comes after 12. An asteroid will fly by Earth on Friday the 13th, 2029. 'The seating arrangement at the Last Supper is believed to have given rise to a longstanding Christian superstition that having 13 guests at a table was a bad omen,' noted - 'specifically, that it was courting death.' The negative associations around Fridays are 'weaker,' but still rooted in Christianity, as Friday was also the day Eve tempted Adam with the apple and the day Cain killed Abel.
Some point to the Last Supper, where Jesus and his 12 disciples, one of whom betrayed him, dined on a Thursday the next day, Good Friday, Jesus was crucified. When did Friday the 13th become synonymous with bad luck?įolklore experts say it is hard to pinpoint the myth's origin, but that the number 13 and the day Friday are each rooted in separate superstitions linked to biblical tradition.
