13th June: Friday the Thirteenth

It's Friday the 13th - 10 things you may not know about the most dreaded day of the year:

1. There are two words for the fear of Friday the 13th: friggatriskaidekaphobia (from Frigga, the Norse goddess for whom "Friday" is named in English and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia (from the Greek words Paraskeví meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís meaning "thirteen").
2. Friday 13th isn't necessarily unlucky for everyone. If you were born on a Friday 13th, then it's a lucky day for you.
3. In other cultures, Friday 13th is just another day, sometimes even a lucky one, and other dates are seen as unlucky - in Spanish speaking countries and Greece they dread the 13th falling on a Tuesday, while in Italy Friday the 17th is the day to watch out for.
4. I've heard it said that Friday 13th is a lucky day for women. This is no doubt connected with one of the many theories for the origin of the superstition - that it arose when patriarchal religions vilified the number thirteen because it represented femininity (there are thirteen 28 day menstrual cycles over the course of a year).
5. Another origin theory is because Christ was crucified on a Friday and because there were 13 guests at the last supper. A similar theory comes from Norse mythology when twelve gods sat down to a feast in Valhalla, and Loki, the god of mischief crashed the party making a party of 13. Loki had planned to have Baldur, the god of joy and gladness, assassinated at this feast, so 13 guests brought misfortune at this meal as well.
6. In Britain, public hangings used to take place on Fridays and there were 13 steps up to the noose.
7. Another Christian based origin theory is because Philip IV of France had Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and 60 of his senior knights arrested on October 13, 1307, a Friday, and then tortured and executed.
8. If a month begins on a Sunday then the 13th will fall on a Friday.
9. There will be at least one Friday 13th in every calendar year and there could be as many as three. The longest period which can elapse between two Friday 13ths is fourteen months. There is only the one in 2014.
10. The superstition surrounding Friday 13th can actually make it a safer day for travel, as a Dutch study found in 2008 that there were fewer reports of accidents and theft on Friday 13th than on a regular Friday, possibly because people were being more careful or because a lot of people simply stayed home. Conversely, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy as people are more likely to remember the bad things that happen to them on this date, and more likely to be looking for them.