“Sometimes the stories we inherit say more about fear than truth.”

Today is Friday the 13th.

For a lot of people, that date immediately triggers a certain kind of reaction. The jokes start flying about bad luck, black cats, ladders, broken mirrors, and horror movies. Some people genuinely feel uneasy about it. Others treat it like a cultural punchline that pops up a few times a year.

But for me? It’s always felt like the opposite.

Friday the 13th has never been a “bad luck” day in my mind. If anything, it’s always felt like a little internal celebration. Not a loud one - just a quiet acknowledgement that sometimes the things people fear the most are just stories that have been repeated long enough to feel real.

And today has an extra bonus layer: my husband is home for a few days. Anyone who has a partner who works away knows those moments hit a little differently. The house feels fuller, the rhythm changes, and suddenly even a regular day carries a bit more warmth to it.

So while the internet is busy posting spooky memes about unlucky numbers, I’m over here treating today like a small personal holiday.

But the funny thing about Friday the 13th is that the fear around it actually has a pretty interesting history.

The superstition around the number thirteen goes back centuries. One of the earliest references comes from Norse mythology. According to legend, twelve gods were gathered for a banquet in Valhalla when Loki - the trickster god - showed up uninvited as the thirteenth guest. Chaos followed, and one of the beloved gods, Balder, ended up dead as a result of the events that unfolded. From that point on, thirteen at a table was considered unlucky.

Later, Christianity added another layer to the story. At the Last Supper, there were thirteen people present - Jesus and his twelve apostles - and Judas, the disciple who would betray him, is traditionally thought to have been the thirteenth guest at the table. That association helped cement the idea that the number carried negative symbolism.

But the “Friday the 13th” combination didn’t fully gain traction until much later.

One of the most commonly referenced historical events tied to the superstition happened on Friday, October 13th, 1307. On that day, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of hundreds of members of the Knights Templar, a powerful religious and military order. Many of them were imprisoned, tortured, and eventually executed after being accused of heresy. Over time, that event became one of the historical threads people point to when explaining why the date carries such a dark reputation.

By the time the modern world rolled around, Friday the 13th had fully embedded itself into popular culture. There’s even a name for the fear of it: paraskevidekatriaphobia — the fear of Friday the 13th. (Which, let’s be honest, sounds more terrifying than the date itself.)

Some buildings skip the 13th floor entirely. Airlines have reported people avoiding flights on the 13th. Certain hotels skip room numbers. Entire industries quietly acknowledge that people’s behavior changes around the date, even if they don’t consciously believe the superstition.

It’s fascinating when you step back and look at it.

An entire cultural narrative built around a number and a day.

And yet, if you remove the stories attached to it, today is just… Friday.

The sun still rises. People still go to work. Life keeps moving.

Which is why I’ve always liked reclaiming days like this in my own way.

Instead of treating it like something ominous, I treat it like a reminder. A reminder that the meanings we attach to things are often inherited from generations before us - and we get to decide whether we carry those meanings forward or rewrite them entirely.

For me, Friday the 13th has always been a little moment to pause and appreciate where I’m at.

The work I’m doing.
The people around me.
The fact that even when life gets messy or uncertain, there are still plenty of reasons to quietly celebrate a day.

Today that includes a warm house, a partner home for a few days, and the realization that sometimes the “unlucky” days turn out to be pretty good ones after all.

So if the calendar says today is supposed to be unlucky, I guess I’m doing it wrong.

Because from where I’m sitting, it feels like a pretty good day.