"Counting Friday the 13ths in 2026: Unraveling the Mystery of Its Unluckiness"

SUPERSTITIOUS souls may want to stop reading now, as 2026 is a scary year for people perturbed by a certain creepy calendar day.

Some of the true stories behind the date’s dastardly reputation are even more shocking than the slasher movies. Here is everything you need to know about .

Research suggests that up to 21million Americans are affected by a fear of Friday the 13thCredit: Getty

Why is it Friday the 13th again this year?

appears at least once in every calendar year because of the way the Gregorian calendar cycles through months and weekdays.

Calendar patterns mean some years have one Friday the 13th, while others have two or three.

According to experts, the alignment depends on the day the year begins and whether it is a leap year.

How many Friday the 13ths are there in 2026?

In 2026, the calendar started on a Thursday, which means there are three months in the year where the 13th lands on a Friday.

This occurs relatively rarely, but unfortunately for superstitious types, this year is one of those occasions.

in 2026 falls in the months of February, March and November.

According to mathematicians studying the calendar cycle, the 13th day of any month is slightly more likely to fall on a Friday than any other weekday.

While many fear the date because of superstition, statisticians and researchers have found no evidence that bad luck or unusual disasters happen more often on than on any other day.

Why are people scared of Friday the 13th?

The fear of Friday the 13th is so widespread that it has its own name – friggatriskaidekaphobia (also paraskevidekatriaphobia).

“Frigga” refers to the associated with Friday, while “triskaideka” is Greek for thirteen, and “phobia” means fear.

When Norse and Germanic tribes who worshipped Frigga converted to Christianity in the early Middle Ages, legend has it that she was labelled a witch and banished to a mountaintop.

It was believed that every Friday she would meet with eleven other witches and the devil himself (13 in total), and together they would plot terrible things for the coming week.

Psychologists and cultural historians say the word reflects a long tradition of unease about the number 13 itself.

Many buildings skip a 13th floor, airlines sometimes avoid row 13 and hotels may leave out room number 13 entirely.

The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in North Carolina estimated that up to 21million Americans are affected by a fear of .

This leads some people to even avoid travelling, doing business deals or making any big decisions on the date.

Why is Friday the 13th considered unlucky?

Historians say the superstition likely developed from several overlapping traditions rather than a single event.

The Friday the 13th movie cemented the myth in the public psycheCredit: Paramount Pictures

One commonly cited influence comes from Christianity.

At the Last Supper, Judas Iscariot was the 13th guest at the table before the crucifixion of Jesus, which according to Christian tradition happened on a Friday.

Over time, the two symbols became linked with misfortune.

In Norse mythology there is a story about 12 gods dining together in Valhalla when Loki, a trickster figure, arrived uninvited as the 13th guest and caused chaos.

By the 19th century the superstition had spread widely in Europe and , eventually becoming part of popular culture.

In 1980, the first film in cemented the myth in the public psyche.

Killer Pamela Voorhees did the damage in the original, before her son Jason took up the mantle in the majority of the sequels.

What important historical events happened on Friday the 13th?

Some really unlucky and horrific over the years, helping to reinforce the date’s dark reputation.

• October 13, 2023: carried out strikes on nuclear sites in Iran, leading Iran to describe the attack as a “declaration of war”.
• March 13, 2020: The US declared a national emergency due to the pandemic and many global lockdowns began.
• January 13, 2012: Cruise liner Costa Concordia struck a rock off the Italian coast and with over 4,000 people on board, the ship capsized and 32 passengers and crew died.
• August 13, 2010: A 13-year-old boy was struck by lightning in at exactly 13:13.
• October 13, 2006: 36 inches of snow fell on upstate , causing around £85million’s worth of damage.
• September 13, 1996: Legendary rapper sustained in an unsolved drive-by shooting.
• October 13, 1989: The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 190.58 points in the Friday the 13th mini crash – the second largest single-day drop at the time.
• October 13, 1972: Uruguayan Air Force , with 16 survivors resorting to cannibalism before rescue over two months later. On the same day, a flight from crashed near , killing all 174 passengers.
• November 13, 1970: The Bhola cyclone struck and , claiming up to 500,000 lives.
• March 13, 1964: Kitty Genovese was stabbed and raped over 30 minutes in New York, with 38 witnesses reportedly failing to call police – an incident that gave rise to the psychological concept of the “bystander effect.”
• September 13, 1940: Nazi forces dropped five bombs on , killing one person and destroying the Royal Chapel.
• January 13, 1939: Devastating bushfires tore through Victoria, , on what became known as Black Friday, killing 36 people and destroying 75 per cent of the state.
• July 13, 1877: Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general and founding Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, was born.
• Friday 13th, 1829: Daredevil Sam Patch, known as The Yankee Leaper, jumped 125 feet into the Niagara River, near the , in front of more than 8,000 spectators and was never seen again.
• October 13, 1307: King Philip IV of France ordered the mass arrest of the , the majority of whom were burned at the stake.