Extra-Spooky Friday The 13th Coincides With Full Moon
By Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Today is an unusual day for the superstitious. It's Friday the 13th and there is a full moon tonight. This won't happen again until 2049.
Ed Guinan, professor of astronomy and planetary science at Villanova University says, "There is absolutely no evidence that Friday the 13th is bad luck and there's no evidence really that the full moon effects human behavior."
Linda Lee, a folklorist in Temple University's Intellectual Heritage Foundation, says there are beliefs that contribute to the unlucky label. First, Friday was bad because Christ's crucifixion happened on a Friday.
As for the number 13, "We see the number 12 as signifying wholeness or completeness in terms of thinking about the 12 apostles. The number 13 in the Medieval period came to signify something much less good, much less whole, in part because it's one off."
Lee says the craziness of the full moon stems in part from stories about werewolves which were driven wild by it on a clear night.
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