Stephen Lewis: Friday the 13th is coming

Among popular superstitions, one enjoys its own name — “triskaidekaphobia” a multi-syllabic Greek based word meaning fear of the number 13, as a harbinger of misfortune, especially when it is combined with Friday, as it rarely does.

In 2021, the only Friday the 13th occurrence will be in August.

There have always been those who risk thumbing their noses at this superstition by ignoring or even celebrating the number itself with or without the help of Friday. For example, in 1882, William Fowler, who had attended P.S. 13 in New York, founded the Thirteen Club whose 13 members met on the 13th of the month, walked underneath a ladder before sitting down, and then ate a 13-course dinner. A year after its founding, it reported that not one of its members had died and all had had a good year.

Yet, that superstition persisted: some tall buildings skip from the 12th floor to the 14th, and street grids, avoid the number that shall not be named. In that regard, however, I can affirm that I can recall no untoward happenings on East 13th Street in Brooklyn, a block away from my home on East 12th.

Looking at 13 purely as a number, we note that 12, its near neighbor enjoys non-threatening, even positive associations, as in 12 months of the year, 12 hours on the clock, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 days of Christmas, 12 ancient tribes of Israel, and so forth. And we do not seem to pay much attention to 14, its neighbor on the other side.

It’s as though 12 sucked up all the positive number energy, leaving 13 neglected and angry like the child whose sibling gets all of the attention while 14 is happy in its anonymity. Of course, there are lucky numbers, such as seven. Why it is lucky, makes as much, or as little, sense as 13’s fear inspiring reputation.

One explanation about 13’s negativity connects it to the participants at the Last Supper — 12 apostles plus Christ. But a logician would argue that such an explanation is an ad hoc fallacy, one that declares that because event X precedes event Y, in this case 13 at the supper as X and crucifixion as Y, X must have caused Y. This kind of thinking supports superstitions that connect an unfortunate event to one that preceded it.

In a less momentous way, this reasoning can be found in the urban-based warning to children, “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back,” wherein the result is an exaggerated way to indicate something bad would happen to your unsuspecting and innocent mom.

Whatever its source, 13’s reputation as the harbinger of bad luck became combined with Friday to create the killer combo of Friday the 13th. Tying the unlucky number to a day of the week reduced its frequency and raised its negativity to something bad on steroids.

Think Friday the 13th film series.

No explanation as to the source of these beliefs is satisfactory, but one generalization seems possible — such superstitions provide answers as to why things, good but especially bad, happen, a way to make sense out of what we experience, and to provide a little comfort in a world that sometimes seems beyond our control.

It has not yet been suggested, but perhaps someone will find a way of associating the pandemic with 13-something, especially if the something happened on a Friday.

When August arrives, you can take a positive step to debunk the superstition as Fowler did.

Or remain agnostic and go about your business.

Or stay in bed with a blanket over your head.

Stephen Lewis, originally from Brooklyn, New York is a retired college English professor and writer whose novels include three mysteries set in northern Michigan. Contact stevelew@charter.net.