Friday the 13th: The Unluckiest Day on the Calendar

Friday the 13th happens whenever the 13th of a month lands on a Friday, at least once and up to three times a year. It’s the day black cats get side-eye and ladders get a wide berth. LVCRFT’s soundtrack for it: Scream Warriors, the most terrifying album ever made. It’s our horror album made with Hellraiser composer Christopher Young.

When is the next Friday the 13th?

Next up: Friday, November 13, 2026. Every year has at least one Friday the 13th and never more than three. Every upcoming date is in the Spooky Holiday Calendar.

Why is Friday the 13th unlucky?

Two old superstitions collided. Friday was long seen as a bad day to start a journey, a wedding or anything new. Thirteen carried its own dread, especially the belief that if 13 people sit down to dinner, one of them will die. French writers were calling Friday the 13th unlucky by the 1830s, and Thomas W. Lawson’s 1907 novel Friday, the Thirteenth helped spread the idea in America.

The popular story tying it to the arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307, makes great campfire material, but historians haven’t found the superstition before the 1800s.

What is the fear of Friday the 13th called?

Paraskevidekatriaphobia. Say it three times fast and see what happens.

How to celebrate Friday the 13th

• Marathon the Friday the 13th movies, which started in 1980.
• Play Scream Warriors with the lights off.
• Give a black cat some love.
• Walk under a ladder, if you dare.

The Friday the 13th soundtrack

Start with Scream Warriors, then keep the dread going with our Halloween playlists.

See every spooky holiday in the Spooky Holiday Calendar.