It's Friday the 13th and a full moon to boot! The last time a full moon appeared on Friday the 13th was in 2000...
Friday the 13th, the strange, iconic day of disaster. The day conjures up instances of bad luck, superstitions, obsessive compulsive behavior and fear.
But what is the origin of Friday the 13th? WWL's Patty Burnaman embarked on a mission to find out.
Friday the 13th goes back to medieval times, according to Tulane University English Professor Michael Kuczynski, "Some historians make a point about the particular origin, they associate it with the Knights Templar, who were a 12th century order of knights in 1307. On Friday the 13th, certain forged letters were sent to the King of France, which accused the Knights Templar of black magic. As a result, about 600 of the Knights Templar were rounded up, brought to trial and executed."
Superstitions about Friday the 13th and the number 13 in general go back ages. And yet still, many buildings do not have a 13th floor or rooms numbered 13. And in seafaring lore, a ship should never set sail on Friday as it was bad luck and meant the ship would go down.
"There were some ancient cultures in the middle ages that were suspicious about Friday and Friday the 13th in particular," Kuczynski says. "They seem to have regarded 12 as the perfect number so 13, the next number in sequence was imperfect so there was superstitious suspicion about it."
Friday the 13th in New Orleans is a special day for those fascinated about fate and wanting to explore the strange, unknown and unfamiliar. Sidney Smith is with Haunted History Tours, he says: "We always tell people to take pictures on the tour, and more times than not people will capture things in their photos that were not there when they took the pictures." Smith continues, "And that seems to happen alot more on certain days like Halloween, Friday the 13th."