For some, the number 13 isn’t unlucky, just look at Brian O’Driscoll.
Some of you may have noticed that today is Friday 13 October and for others, you probably consider today to be just another Friday because you don’t believe in that superstitious shite.
We grow up fearing the number 13 and we’re not quite sure why (sure didn’t Brian O’Driscoll get on just fine wearing it all his Ireland career).
My father, who would definitely not consider himself to be superstitious, once paid an extra €200 so that he could change the date of our flights home from Spain because there was a storm promised for Ireland that Friday (the 13th of August) and he wasn’t going to take any chances.
So, why is it that we fear the number 13 and how come when it is put together alongside a Friday that the majority of us go into complete caution mode.
The origins of it have said to come from the Last Supper. There were 13 people in the room at the time of the feast and then on the following Friday, Jesus died.
However, according to the Metro, the meaning comes from the 19th century.
A ghostwriter for Gioachino Rossini’s biography (Rossini, an Italian Composer died on Friday the 13th) explained Rossini’s disliking for both the number and the day…
“He [Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring friends; and if it be true that, like so many Italians, he regarded Fridays as an unlucky day and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday 13th of November he passed away.”
Furthermore, a study carried out by The British Medical Journal concluded that there was an increase in the number of accidents reported on Friday the 13th in comparison to other random Fridays.
We’ll be staying away from mirrors and ladders today regardless and if you want to find us, we’ll be locked in a room until 12am.
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