You might already know but Tuesday the 13th in Spain is equal to Friday the 13th in many of our readers’ home countries.

It’s not only Spain, but also Greece and many Latin-American countries where Martes 13 is considered a day of bad luck. There is a popular Spanish saying that goes: En martes, ni te cases, ni te embarques, ni de tu casa te apartes.

The number thirteen received its bad reputation, perhaps, from the fact that 13 is the death card in tarot cards (like the ace of spades in a normal pack). So inbred is the aversion to the number 13 that there is even a medical name for it: Triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number) or Trezidavomartiofobia (fear of Martes 13, itself).

There’s even a name for the same condition dealing with Friday the 13th: Parascevedecatriafobia in Spanish or paraskevidekatriaphobia in English. Another English name for the fear of Friday the 13th is friggatriskaidekaphobia after the Nordic goddess, Frigg, we get ‘Friday’ from her name, in her honour.

But this aversion was Europe-wide in the Middle Ages because even the Norsemen considered the trickster, wicked god, Loki to be the 13th god, which is why when Christianity made its appearance it was transformed into being Satan the 13th angel.

There’s also the theory that it comes from the Last Supper and Judas and another one called the Hammurabi theory: the Code of Hammurabi was supposed to have the 13th article omitted.

Friday, obviously, got its bad reputation from Good Friday; i.e., the crucifixion of Christ. As for Martes… well, one of the theories is that Constantinople fell on a Tuesday, which was a tremendous blow for Christendom.

Finally, just when you’re starting to understand all this, you discover that in Italy it is Friday the 17th; not the 13th…

Anyway, here are a few incidents that did not take place on a Tuesday the 13th.

(News/Feature: culture & history)