Friday 13th: Why Is It Believed to Be Unlucky?
It's Friday 13th today — supposedly the unluckiest day! But why do people always think something bad is going to happen when it comes around?
今天是星期五13号——据说是最倒霉的一天！ 但是为什么人们总是认为在这一天会有一些不好的事情发生呢？
Well, the truth is that no one's sure what the exact origin of the superstition is.
事实上，没有人知道这个迷信的确切起源。
The number 13 and Friday both have a long history of bringing bad luck — and it's the combination of the two that makes the day the most feared.
数字13和星期五会带来坏运气，两者都有着漫长的历史，而正是这两个数字的结合使得这一天最令人恐惧。
"Unlucky" 13
不吉利的13
Many think that the reason for the number 13's bad luck comes from the Bible.
许多人认为数字13不吉利的原因来自圣经。
Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is thought to have been the 13th guest to sit down to the Last Supper.
背叛耶稣的犹大，被认为是第13个坐下来参加最后的晚餐的客人。
Even today, it's considered unlucky to have 13 people sitting at a dinner table, and some people pop a teddy bear in a seat to make the number of guests up to 14!
即使在今天，有13个人坐在一张餐桌上也被认为是不吉利的，有些人会在一个座位上放一个泰迪熊，使客人的数量达到14人！
In Norse mythology, a dinner party of the gods was ruined by the 13th guest called Loki, who caused the world to be plunged into darkness.
在北欧神话中，众神的晚宴被第13个名叫洛基的客人毁了，他使世界陷入黑暗。
It seems the superstition has stuck.
看来这个迷信已经流传下来了。
Some hotels will have no room 13, while a lot of tall buildings "don't have" a 13th floor, jumping straight from 12 to 14.
Some airlines also refuse to have a row 13 in their planes too.
一些航空公司也拒绝在他们的飞机上安排第13排。
"Unlucky" Friday
不吉利的星期五
For hundreds of years, Friday has been considered the unluckiest day of the week. In Geoffrey Chaucer's famous Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th Century, he says "and on a Friday fell all this mischance".
几百年来，星期五一直被认为是一周中最倒霉的一天。 在14世纪杰弗里·乔叟著名的《坎特伯雷故事集》中，他写道: “在一个星期五，所有的厄运都降临了。”
In Britain, Friday was once known as Hangman's Day because it was usually when people who had been condemned to death would be hanged.
在英国，星期五曾被称为刽子手日，因为通常被判处死刑的人会在这一天被绞死。
But Good Friday — the day of Jesus Christ's crucifixion — is thought to be the only Friday that bucks the trend, hence its name.
但耶稣受难日——耶稣基督被钉在十字架受难的日子，它被认为是唯一一个扭转这一趋势的星期五，因此得名Good Friday。
If you're born on Good Friday you're thought to be lucky, while sailors, who are notoriously superstitious, would sometimes begin a long voyage on Good Friday because of its holy connections.
如果你出生在耶稣受难日，你就是幸运的。而水手们，他们是出了名的迷信，有时会在耶稣受难日开始远航，因为这一天与宗教的神圣联系。
Fear of Friday 13th?
对星期五13号的恐惧？
The combination of Friday and the number 13 as a day of particularly bad luck seems to be a relatively recent tradition — perhaps only about 100 years old.
把星期五和数字13结合起来作为一个特别倒霉的日子，似乎是一个相对较近的传统，也许只有100年的历史。
There's even a special word for the fear of Friday 13th — paraskevidekatriaphobia. We've got a fear of trying to pronounce that word...!
甚至还有一个专门的词来形容对星期五13号恐惧症的恐惧——paraskevidekatriaphobia。 我们害怕发出那个词的音！
2025年8月26日于经典龙苑
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