February 12, 2009 • 21 mins
What is it about Friday the 13th that gives us the collective willies? Discover the surprising roots of this common superstition -- and what paraskevidekatriaphobia means -- in this HowStuffWorks podcast.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
From how Stuff works dot com. This podcast is brought
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(00:22):
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Hey there, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. Chuck is
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,
(00:45):
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
(01:06):
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
(01:28):
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
(01:50):
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.
(02:13):
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
(02:33):
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,
(02:56):
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
(03:18):
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,
(03:40):
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.
(04:00):
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
(04:21):
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,
(04:44):
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
(05:06):
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
(05:29):
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
(05:50):
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
(06:11):
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.
(06:32):
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.
(06:53):
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.
(07:15):
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
(07:38):
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
(08:01):
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
(08:23):
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
(08:44):
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
(09:08):
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,
(09:28):
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,
(09:49):
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
(10:13):
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
(10:34):
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
(10:54):
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
(11:18):
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,
(11:41):
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
(12:03):
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
(12:26):
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
(12:48):
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,
(13:11):
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
(13:33):
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
(13:53):
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
(14:14):
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,
(14:36):
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
(15:00):
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
(15:21):
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.
(15:42):
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
(16:06):
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,
(16:28):
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
(16:52):
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
(17:12):
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,
(17:34):
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
(17:55):
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
(18:17):
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
(18:38):
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,
(19:02):
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,
(19:24):
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
(19:46):
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
(20:09):
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,
(20:30):
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
(20:52):
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
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(21:14):
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Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
From how Stuff works dot com. This podcast is brought
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of your choice when you sign up today. Log on
(00:22):
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Hey there, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. Chuck is
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,
(00:45):
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
(01:06):
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
(01:28):
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
(01:50):
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.
(02:13):
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
(02:33):
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,
(02:56):
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
(03:18):
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,
(03:40):
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.
(04:00):
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
(04:21):
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,
(04:44):
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
(05:06):
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
(05:29):
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
(05:50):
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
(06:11):
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.
(06:32):
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.
(06:53):
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.
(07:15):
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
(07:38):
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
(08:01):
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
(08:23):
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
(08:44):
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
(09:08):
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,
(09:28):
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,
(09:49):
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
(10:13):
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
(10:34):
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
(10:54):
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
(11:18):
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,
(11:41):
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
(12:03):
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
(12:26):
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
(12:48):
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,
(13:11):
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
(13:33):
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
(13:53):
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
(14:14):
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,
(14:36):
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
(15:00):
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
(15:21):
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.
(15:42):
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
(16:06):
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,
(16:28):
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
(16:52):
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
(17:12):
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,
(17:34):
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
(17:55):
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
(18:17):
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
(18:38):
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,
(19:02):
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,
(19:24):
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
(19:46):
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
(20:09):
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,
(20:30):
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
(20:52):
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
(21:14):
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