Halloween and Friday the 13th have a slight difference with a common feature of depicting bad omens.
Halloween is celebrated by people to mark a holiday before the season of Allohowtide arrives whereas Friday, the 13 is believed to be an unpleasant day by the western people’s superstitions, it can occur twice or thrice in a year.
Key Takeaways
- Halloween is an annual celebration on October 31st, while Friday the 13th is an irregular occurrence based on the calendar.
- Halloween has roots in ancient Celtic traditions and focuses on themes of death and the supernatural, while Friday the 13th is a modern superstition associated with bad luck.
- Halloween is a widely celebrated holiday with customs such as trick-or-treating, costume parties, and pumpkin carving. In contrast, Friday the 13th is observed less formally and mainly through cautionary tales and horror films.
Halloween vs Friday the 13th
Halloween is a holiday celebrated annually on October 31st, mainly in the United States of America, associated with scary themes, horror legends and histories, costumes, and trick-or-treating. Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day by some people from different cultures and countries.
Halloween is from a day of demons and turnips to a festivity that includes costumes and candies. It draws from both Celtic and Christian traditions, while it always had a spooky vibe it has changed over centuries.
It was considered as a holiday before the Christian feast of All Saints but as time flew, it transformed to the flashy fright-fest, which is loved by every person regardless of any age group.
Friday the 13th, occurs when any month that begins on Sunday. It is considered unlucky and bad by people as per the Christian traditions as considered Jesus had his last supper with an odd number of people which were 13
They used to consider the year having 12 months means even are supposed to be good, while the supper ended with 13 people and the following day Jesus was crucified by The Romans, his death is portrayed as a sacrifice by people for humanity’s sins.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Halloween | Friday the 13th |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | Halloween is derived from the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain. | Friday the 13th has been derived from the story of Jesus, the last supper, and following the crucifixion. |
| Significance | It is celebrated before the arrival of All Hallowtide. | It says that anything that happens on this day happens to be bad. |
| Food | Monkey nuts, Candy apples, Caramel corn, Roasted pumpkin seeds, Chocolates, etc. | Roasted fish, Soba noodles, Black-Eyed peas, Doughnuts, Cakes, etc. |
| Symbols | On this day yards are decorated with the Halloween theme by using pumpkins, ghost statues, lights, and much more. | These include black cats, a calendar showing 13 dates is some signs of it being a bad day. |
| Current Observation | The day is celebrated with great pomp with music, dance, and much more. It is celebrated like a festival. | The day happens to be bad anyhow, people nowadays just prefer doing normal work and just avoid good things. |
What is Halloween?
Halloween is also known as All Hallows Eve or All Saints Eve, which is observed by everyone on 31 October every year and is a holiday before the beginning of a three-day-long season of Hallowtide.
This marks a day to remove all the negative energy and to get started with positivity and all the fun begins with music and zeal counting up to making the best of every single minute of the day to spark.
It got its origin from the festival of Samhain, which is celebrated in ancient Britain and Ireland among the Celts.
During Samhain, it was believed by the people that the dead souls of people were expected to return their homes to keep them away people used to set bonfires on the hilltops which also kept them warm from the winter.
They also wore masks like demons, which kept their identity hidden from the ghosts.
They kept it hidden so that they don’t identify them and don’t torture or hurt them out of all agony and negativity they would have in them which may lead to paranormal incidents.
This is where the beings like demons, witches, boo’s, hobgoblins, angels, and fairies came linked with the day, which in today’s scenario is a day of festive with huge lights and many Boo costumes getting into the fun from a child to an old person.
It has made the spooky Halloween into a Worldwide festive, which is greatly encouraged and celebrated among everyone around the world.
Every person enjoys this night with their family and friends having a good memorable fun-filled holiday after having tiring days which helps reunite and enjoy the season of festive.
What is Friday the 13th?
Friday the 13th is an unlucky day according to the Christian calendar because as stories are considered, the number is considered to be bad.
The day Friday is considered unlucky the reason this is framed according to the Biblical tradition and their beliefs which has been carried from late centuries.
If anything continues to work again with the system of odd numbers especially 13 ends up to be bad and dark which makes the day worse and tends to happen unnatural things the particular day causing hatred by everyone for the day.
According to the Bible, On a Maundy Thursday, 13 guests arrived to attend the last supper, which included Jesus and his 12 apostles(one of the apostles (Judas) betrayed him).
The following day happened to be Friday the day when Jesus was Crucified. The presence of 13 people around the table for the supper happened to give a boost to the superstition and support the bad omen.
All superstitions are derived through these kinds of activities which may have occurred in the past and our ancestors may have faced many issues which are just making us take it as it has been taken by our parents and our ancestors as well.
Whereas the western culture has been spinning around the consideration of the number 12 as a complete(12 months,12 zodiacs,12 Israel tribes, 12 gods of Olympus are a few examples), so considering in a view of these many incidents Friday the 13th gets into the books of bad omen.
As when 12 gives faith of positivity so considering it 13 becomes a negative part of Christian traditions because their stories reveal it to be negative and bad, which can’t’ afford to bring any sort of happiness to anybody on a particular day.
Main Differences Between Halloween and Friday The 13th
- Halloween has been derived as a holiday before All saints day whereas Friday the 13th is derived from the story, the last summer the subsequent crucifixion.
- Halloween day is counted back to the late 17 century and has a Christian origin while Friday the 13th dates back to the middle ages.
- Halloween day is celebrated on 31 of October every year while Friday the 13th can occur twice or thrice every year.
- Halloween day is celebrated with great fun-filled activities including dance, music, games and much more whereas on Friday the 13th people prefer staying at home away from any activity and fun.
- Halloween day includes decoration of homes and gardens with all the ghostly themes though it is scary somehow makes the day better than staying inside as compared to Friday the 13th.
- https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ZLAqApMPMoEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=halloween&ots=YVT65dnzx3&sig=a01N6ef3FixNGVyWSWWN3OGLMcE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=halloween&f=false
- https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7208/9780226429427-016/html
Last Updated : 13 July, 2023
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
