Friday the thirteenth

Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck in English-, French- and Portuguese-speaking countries around the world, as well as in...

Austria, Germany, Estonia, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and even the Philippines .

Similar superstitions exist in some other traditions. In Greece, Romania and Spanish-speaking countries, for example, it is Tuesday the 13th that is considered unlucky. In Italy it is Friday the 17th.

The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (meaning fear). The term is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a simple phobia (fear) of the number thirteen appearing in any case.

Friday the 13th – Unlucky for some?

Miss Scarborough Jade Saunders, said: "If anything goes wrong on Friday the 13th I would blame it on the day. I would probably avoid booking a holiday and going on long journeys. I probably wouldn't like to go out on the night either incase something happened to me."

Sir Jimmy Savile, left, said: "I always look forward to Friday the 13th because most people feel unlucky, but I'm always very very lucky so I'm usually winning on my own.

"West End star Ben Ellis, said: "It doesn't bother me that much as I'm not superstitious. Friday the 13th is a myth. I would avoid doing anything that would endanger my life in anyway like walking on a tightrope."

Scarborough Mayor Cllr Eileen Vickers said: "I never even think about it and I just carry on doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm superstitious on some things but not Friday the 13th. One of the things I don't like are knives crossed because it's supposed to cause an argument."

Scarborough MP Robert Goodwill said: "We're actually going to the Phoenix Drama's performance of The Village Fete at the YMCA Theatre so I only hope we're more fortunate than President Lincoln than when he visited a theatre because he had a bit of bad luck. I think you make your own luck."