<ul><li>Today is December 13, 2024, and it’s a Friday. And it’s the second of two Friday the 13ths in 2024.</li><li>Any calendar year has at least one – but no more than three – Friday the 13ths.</li><li>There’s a name for having an irrational fear of Friday the 13th: friggatriskaidekaphobia.</li><li>Folklorists state that there’s no written evidence that Friday the 13th was considered unlucky before the 19th century.</li><li>Even in the Middle Ages, people would not marry – or set out on a journey – on a Friday.</li><li>In modern times, the slasher-movie franchise Friday the 13th has helped keep friggatriskaidekaphobia alive.</li><li>Because the Gregorian calendar has a 400-year cycle, September-December Friday the 13th years recur in cycles of 400 years.</li><li>If you’re up for doing the computations, you’ll find September-December Friday the 13th years repeat at different intervals in other centuries too.</li><li>Bottom line: Scared of Friday the 13th? It’s just a feature of our Gregorian calendar, and a pretty common one at that.</li><li>The Gregorian calendar features 688 Friday the 13ths.</li></ul>

Happy Friday the 13th: It’s the 2nd of 2 in 2024

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