Freaky Friday? Expecting the worst from Friday the 13th is mostly an American thing

Here we are folks, it's Friday. It's not just any Friday, it's Friday the 13th. Maybe you already knew, maybe you've been feeling the spooky vibes all day, keeping your head on a swivel for black cats.

Friday lands on the 13th of the month about once a year.

In the 80s, the "Friday the 13th" movies seemed to have a similar schedule. Did you know there are actually 12 "Friday the 13th" movies? What do you think would happen if they made a 13th? I shudder to think.

We wanted to know where did all this Friday the 13th mumbo jumbo come from? And are Americans the only ones freaking out about it?

Grab your 4-leaf clovers, horseshoes, dreamcatchers and rabbit's feet and let's go in depth on Friday the 13th.

Theories surround the mystique of unlucky day

There are a few theories of where Friday the 13th began -- most of them rooted in religion.

In Norse mythology, 13 is unlucky because of the story of a dinner party or "middag." That's the Norwegian term for a late-afternoon meal.

According to legend, 12 gods were hamming it up in Valhalla, and Loki crashed the party, making him the 13th guest. Loki then convinced another god to kill his own brother. It's messy, but that's the story. And it sounds familiar.

Many think the "last supper" from the Bible is the origin behind unlucky number 13. Jesus and his disciples sat down to a meal. Judas Iscariot showed up and betrayed him, turning him over to the chief priests.

So that's the "13." But why Friday? Back to the Bible.

Friday is said to be the day Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, when Cain killed his brother Abel, when the Temple of Solomon fell and when Noah's ark set sail.

Another theory comes from France. Fast forward a few hundred years to 1307. Members of the Knights Templar were charged with heresy.

They were burned at the stake on Friday, Oct. 13. "Unlucky" may be an understatement on that one.

So that's how "Friday the 13th" started – we think – and its legend would only grow in the 1900s.

Legend grows through media, pop culture

A novel with the same name was hugely popular in 1907. It's about a stockbroker who seeks help after a market crash ruins his family.

Fast forward to 1980 and you've got a guy in a hockey mask slashing through the box office eight times in 10 years.

It's not just pop culture though. Some genuinely awful stuff happened on Friday the 13th. In 1940, during World War II, Buckingham Palace was bombed on Friday, Sept. 13. In 1972, two different planes crashed on Friday Oct. 13, one in Russia, the other in the Andes. It's a story that inspired books and movies. Combined, more than 200 people died.

And in 2012, the Costa Concordia sank off the coast of Italy. It is the largest passenger ship to ever sink. Yes, bigger than the Titanic.

What day did the Titanic sink? I'm glad you asked. April 14, 1912, on a Sunday. There were no 13s to speak of there.

The point is you can see why "13" gets a bad rap. But that's mostly in the U.S.

In Spain, Tuesday, not Friday, the 13th is unlucky. In Italy, number 17 is unlucky.

If you look in a hotel elevator in the U.S., they skip the 13th floor. Not overseas. In Japan, China and South Korea they skip the 4th floor.

These things vary from place to place. Each with their own origin stories and weird coincidences that satisfy the superstitions. And another weird coincidence could be on the way. Let's quickly talk about a future Friday the 13th.

Take a look at Apophis. It looks like a rock and it is, except, it's a space rock hurtling toward Earth. This will come closer to Earth than any in human history, and it's the size of the Rose Bowl.

It will blitz through our atmosphere at about 10 miles per second on Friday April 13, 2029. It isn't going to hit us. It'll be a near-miss, about 20,000 miles from earth's surface. But if it passes in just the right place, its orbit could shift just enough to be on a collision course with our planet sometime in the next hundred years.

Now that would be unlucky. Except that's not going to happen either. Scientists have been watching this thing for years. They've refined the asteroid's trajectory over and over again. An impact isn't happening any time soon.

And if Apophis DID take aim at Earth, NASA has a way to deflect it. The DART mission successfully altered an asteroid's orbit in 2022 so you've got nothing to worry about. But if you're feeling nervous, or superstitious, maybe grab a rabbit's foot or 4-leaf clover.

Happy Friday everyone. Are we feeling good about the weekend?

Tell me what you think about Friday the 13th and any other burning topic at dan@wral.com.