Friday the 13th: Here's why it is considered to be unlucky

Friday the 13 is here to spook a lot of people out. Fear of this day is called paraskevidekatriaphobia.

While you may be superstitious about the day, do you ever know why the day gained such a bad rap? Here are a few stories of its origin.

It all began thousands of years ago. Some believe it started with the story of The Last Supper. On the 13th of Nisan in the Assyrian calendar and the day before Jesus was crucified, which was Maundy Thursday, there were 13 people present for the Last Supper. Jesus then died on Good Friday.

The significance of the date has also been traced back to King Philip IV of France, who arrested hundreds of Knights Templar on Friday 13 October 1307.

In 1869, British journalist Henry Sutherland Edwards’ biography of Gioachino Rossini also made a mention of the day and associated it as unlucky.

According to the Metro, he wrote in the book:

"He [Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring friends; and if it be true that, like so many Italians, he regarded Fridays as an unlucky day and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday 13th of November he passed away."

With all the hype of this day, has anything freaky really happened? Well, there have been a few incidents you could term as weird:

* In 2010, a 13-year-old boy named James Paget was stuck by lightning at 13.13 on this day.

* On Friday 13 in 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed. The survivors has to resort to cannibalism to stay alive.