Friday the 13th and its reputation of bringing bad luck has been tied to an ancient prophecy of global destruction rooted in the betrayal of Jesus Christ.
In an oddity of the modern calendar, Friday the 13th has come again, just one month after arriving on February 13, 2026. Having a Friday the 13th in back-to-back months is something that only occurs in February and March three times every 28 years.
The ominous date on the calendar has become tied to superstitions that allegedly bring the victim misfortune for years, such as breaking a mirror, walking under a ladder, opening an umbrella indoors, and seeing a black cat cross in front of you.
However, the root of all this bad luck is believed to have started at the Last Supper, attended by Jesus and his 12 disciples almost 2,000 years ago.
It was there that Judas Iscariot, the 13th guest, is said to have betrayed Jesus to the chief priests of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious council, who handed Jesus over to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate for trial and crucifixion on a Friday.
Since that time, the number 13 has been associated with negativity and misfortune within the Christian and Catholic faith, often linked to death and betrayal.
This stigma eventually began to focus on Fridays, as Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, leading Christians to observe a period of fasting and penance in memory of that day.
Modern Christian scholars have even linked future events predicted in the Bible to this date, including one prophecy warning of a devastating asteroid strike set to coincide with Doomsday.
The Bible details the story of the Last Supper around 33 AD when Jesus sat with his 12 apostles and told them that one among their number would betray him, adding that his death was imminent
A prophecy in the Book of Revelation has been tied to the approach of a massive city-killing asteroid projected to pass Earth in just three years (Stock Image)
Biblical scholars have interpreted the coming approach of the asteroid Apophis as the fulfillment of the Wormwood prophecy, an event where a star falls from heaven, poisoning a third of the Earth’s waters and causing widespread death.
Tom Horn, a Christian author and researcher known for end times studies, has claimed that Apophis, also known as the ‘God of Chaos’ asteroid, will unexpectedly strike the planet on April 13, 2029, which will also be Friday the 13th.
According to NASA, the 1,000-foot-wide Apophis is projected to safely pass our planet, coming within 20,000 miles of Earth. That will still be the closest a ‘city-killer’ has ever come to striking the planet in modern recorded history.
However, Horn has argued that those calculations could be wrong, paving the way for the Book of Revelation passage 8:10-11 to come true.
The Book of Revelation describes a series of dramatic visions given to the apostle John about future events, including God’s judgments on humanity during a period known as the Great Tribulation.
According to the Bible’s New International Version of Revelation, the end times prophecy states: ‘The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.’
‘The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.’
NASA has refuted the 2029 interpretation, stating: ‘When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it appeared the asteroid could potentially impact Earth in the coming decades. Astronomers closely tracked the asteroid, and now NASA is confident that there is no risk of Apophis impacting our planet for at least 100 years.’
Friday the 13th has since been linked to superstitions such as breaking mirrors, black cats, and walking under ladders, which are all said to bring bad luck
Apophis is expected to pass within 20,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029, which will also be Friday the 13th
While the potentially catastrophic future of Friday the 13th is still up for debate, the date has been full of religious misfortune and death since the time of Jesus’s betrayal.
In 1307, King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V orchestrated a massive, coordinated betrayal and mass arrest of the Knights Templar, a powerful Christian military order famous for defending Christian pilgrims and creating one of the world’s first international banking systems.
The leader of that medieval order, Grand Master Jacques de Molay, is said to have cursed both men for their actions on Friday the 13th as he was burned at the stake. Both the king and pope died within a year, cementing the date’s infamous reputation.
Despite centuries of fear and superstition tied to Friday the 13th, historians believe the first published reference to the date being unlucky came in French literature in 1834.
In the French magazine Revue de Paris, an article by the Marquis de Salvo described a Sicilian count who killed his daughter on Friday the 13th, stating ‘It is always Fridays and the number thirteen that bring bad luck!’
However, the ancient ties to Friday the 13th go back even further in time, and even reached the lands of Scandinavia.
Grand Master Jacques de Molay (Pictured) led the Knights Templar, a religious military order, and placed a curse on Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V after his betrayal on Friday the 13th, in 1307
In Norse mythology, a popular story often linked to the unluckiness of the number 13 involves a banquet in Valhalla, the afterlife for honored Viking warriors killed in battle.
It was at this party where 12 gods were gathered, and the trickster god Loki arrived uninvited as the 13th guest, leading to chaos.
Loki is said to have tricked the blind god Hodur into shooting an arrow made of mistletoe at Balder, the god of light and joy, causing Balder’s death and plunging the world into darkness and mourning.
The connection to Friday came from the day being named after Frigg, Balder’s mother and the Norse goddess of love and marriage, who was deeply affected by her son’s death.
The suspected origin of these beliefs dates back to oral traditions during the Viking Age, around 793 to 1066AD, but they were first written down in the 13th century in Iceland.
The Norse origins of Friday the 13th even tie into the name created by psychotherapist Donald Dossey in the 1980s, who coined the word Friggatriskaidekaphobia to describe the fear of Friday the 13th.
