F13 · Now boarding
When is the next Friday the 13th?
Friday the 13th falls on ….
Counted in your own time zone, —.
There is at least one Friday the 13th every year, and never more than three. The counter above finds the next one rather than looking it up.
The arithmetic is stranger than the superstition
Because the Gregorian calendar repeats every 400 years, the 13th of the month falls on a Friday slightly more often than on any other weekday — 688 times per cycle against 684 or 687 for the others. The unluckiest date on the calendar is also, very slightly, the most common one.
At least one, at most three
Every year contains one, because the pattern of month lengths guarantees it. Three in a single year requires a specific alignment: in a common year, February, March and November; in a leap year, January, April and July. Two years apart can look nothing alike, which is why this page works the date out rather than storing a list.
Nobody plans around it, which is the point
This is a countdown people run for fun rather than for logistics — no deadline, nothing to book, nothing to prepare. It is worth including here precisely because it shows what a countdown is for when the thing at the end of it does not matter: the anticipation is the whole product.
Questions
How often does Friday the 13th happen?
At least once a year and at most three times. It cannot be skipped — the calendar guarantees one.
Which month has the next one?
The counter above works it out from today's date, so it is always the next one rather than a fixed answer.
Why is it considered unlucky?
The superstition combines Friday and the number thirteen, both treated as unlucky in older European tradition; the pairing only became widespread in the nineteenth century.