Friday the 13th.. What is the secret of the myth of the bad day that was fueled by cinema films?

Friday the 13th is a date that raises a lot of controversy. There are those who believe that this day is cursed, or at least a day of bad luck, and it is better to stay at home. There are many who believe that it is just a legend that took its fame from cinematic works and fantasy novels. But what is the story of this day?

The matter is not only related to Friday coinciding with the number 13, but also with the number 13. There are a number of hotels that do not have a room numbered 13, and some airlines do not allocate a seat with this number.

There are also some residents who refuse to buy or rent an apartment bearing the number 13, but in South America, there are those who fly from Tuesday the 13th.

Roots go back to Christian culture

But according to an opinion poll conducted by a German insurance company, a small percentage of Germans are afraid of this day, and only ten out of every hundred Germans are afraid that something bad will happen to them on this day, and most of them are in southern Germany and are between 30 and 39 years old.

There are those who believe that this belief goes back to the Christian culture, which in some of its beliefs starts from the number 13. Others say that the basic principle of things is to stop at the number 12, as in the months and the hour, and there are those who confirm that the matter only relates to a myth that has been perpetuated by cinematic films.

Horror movie

The most famous movie is “Friday the 13th,” which is a horror movie that has had many copies released. It concerns a character who hides his face, known as “Jason,” who kills a number of the movie’s heroes, for the purpose of avenging the death of his mother. None of the heroes in all versions are able to kill this gunman, who continues to appear in every version.

Because of the spread of this myth, there are those who talk about the fear of the number 13 (Triskaidekaphobia). On the other hand, there are cultures that indicate that the number 13 is a lucky number, especially in some areas of southern Europe.

Bad day for Microsoft?

It is funny that many Internet users associate today, Friday (November 13, 2026), with the disruption of the services of the technology giant Microsoft. Microsoft's Outlook email service is witnessing a widespread disruption in a large number of countries around the world, with tens of thousands of users facing difficulty in accessing their accounts, while the company said that it is "intensifying its efforts to limit the repercussions of the disruption."

This malfunction, which Microsoft attributed to “high pressure” on its infrastructure, continued for most of the working hours in the United States, and also affected other products of the company such as the “Teams” platform and the artificial intelligence-based assistant “Copilot.”

The scope of the defect expanded globally within an hour, causing Microsoft products to malfunction in 74 countries and regions, according to the Down Detector website, which specializes in monitoring service malfunctions. A map published by the site on X showed that the outage affected users in the American continent and parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Microsoft initially said it was investigating reports of disruptions “in the Americas,” but later confirmed that the issue appeared to affect “users’ connection to Microsoft 365 services in any region.” Microsoft 365 is a cloud subscription service provided by the company and includes popular applications such as Outlook and Teams.