In much of the Spanish-speaking world, Tuesday the 13th has a dark reputation. As soon as the calendar marks that combination, the old saying resurfaces — ‘on Tuesday, don’t get married or set sail’ — and with it, a vague sense of caution. Although the superstition has no scientific basis, history has seen several high-impact tragedies coincide exactly with that date. And our memory, always selective, has done the rest.
Tuesday is not just any day in Western tradition. Its name comes from Mars, the Roman god of war, associated with violence, conflict and destruction. It is no coincidence that, for centuries, it was considered an inauspicious day to undertake important projects. Added to this symbolism is the number 13, historically linked to imbalance: it breaks the harmony of 12 —the months of the year, the signs of the zodiac, the apostles— and, in Christian tradition, evokes the figure of Judas, the traitor who occupied the thirteenth place at the Last Supper.
Over time, certain events have reinforced this belief. Shipwrecks, plane crashes, massive power outages, and natural disasters that have occurred on Tuesday the 13th have served as perfect fuel for the legend. Not because they are more frequent than on any other day, but because they fit into an existing narrative. The human mind works like this: it looks for patterns, needs explanations and clings to connections that confirm what it suspects. Thousands of Tuesday the 13ths have passed without any notable incidents, but a few, highly publicised ones have been enough to fuel the myth.
This is where confirmation bias comes into play: we tend to remember what reinforces our beliefs and forget what contradicts them. If a Tuesday the 13th passes without incident, it goes unnoticed. If misfortune strikes, the date is highlighted, repeated and passed on. Thus, superstition is kept alive not by the accumulation of evidence, but by the repetition of the story.
Even so, Tuesday the 13th is not only experienced through fear. Nowadays, it coexists with humour, irony and a certain rational distance. Some people avoid signing contracts “just in case”, while others take advantage of the date to joke on social media. Rather than a real threat, it functions as a shared cultural ritual: an excuse to talk about chance, destiny and our need to find meaning in the unpredictable.
Is Tuesday the 13th cursed? Probably not. But it remains an interesting reflection of how history, tradition and collective psychology intertwine. Every time the calendar marks it, we fear not so much the day itself as the idea we have built around it. And perhaps that is where its true power lies: not in bad luck, but in its ability to remind us how much we believe, even when we know there is no reason to do so.
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