FRIDAY 13. See you for the superstitious this Friday since it is a Friday the 13th! Just to try to provoke luck, here are some statistics to follow… or not, luck remaining the only master on board lottery games like the Lotto or the Euromillions!
[Mis à jour le 10 janvier 2023 à 14h28] This Friday, January 13, 2023, many superstitious people (in addition to regular players) will try their luck. As always, La Française des Jeux is surfing on the occasion and offering a Super Lotto with the sum of 13 million euros to be won. Codes allowing 50 different players to win 20,000 euros will also be offered. If you’re superstitious, you’re not alone. According to a study published in May last year by the FDJ, the date of Friday the 13th would be “synonymous with luck for one in five French people and for one in three winners”.
You hesitate to play, do not know which numbers to tick on your grid? Know that statistically, all numbers have the same chance of falling. “There is no magic formula and for a simple reason: each of the forty-nine numbers has exactly the same chance of coming out with each draw, that is to say one out of 49”, explained to TF1 the researcher Pierre Del Moral, head of a research unit at the Toulouse Mathematics Institute (IMT). Nevertheless, statistics enthusiasts rely on previous draws to try to learn from them:
La Française des Jeux (JDF) did not miss the opportunity to offer players a particularly large prize pool for this unique day. 13 million euros are up for grabs on the occasion of the Super Loto draw this Friday, January 13, 2023. As with each draw, you can register the grid that you think is likely to win the jackpot, by going to an approved point of sale Lotery (FDJ) or by betting on the right numbers directly on their website. You have until 8 p.m. to make your choice, after which it will be too late!
As a reminder, the Lotto like the Euromillions are two games of chance. As recalled by the FDJ, “they do not really lend themselves to making predictions on the outgoing numbers in the next draws: it is impossible to give reliable forecasts”.
But what are your chances of winning? At each Loto draw, the chances of finding the 5 correct numbers as well as the “lucky” number are 0.000 005%, which means that each grid has a chance in 19,068,840 of winning the 13 million in the draw tonight. .. The chances of being reimbursed for his 2 euros bet are much higher: they exceed 9%, since it suffices to tick the good lucky number, or a good number and the good lucky number, so that this be the case. The player having in his possession a grid with 5 correct numbers, but who has not ticked the correct lucky number, wins on average only a little more than 100,000 euros. The probabilities for this to happen are however very low, of the order of 0.00005%.
The Loto is not the only opportunity to play this Friday, January 13, 2023. The traditional Friday Euromillions is also in the game, with 17 million euros to be won. Last year, the FDJ site identified the numbers that have been drawn the most since the creation of the Euromillions game in 2004: 19 was released 173 times. Be careful, the differences are in fact small since the least output ball is number 22 and has still been drawn 126 times.
It’s not just Lotto or Euromillions. La Française des Jeux has revealed the best scratch games that offer the most chances of winning, including Astro (30% chance of winning) The special game Friday 13″, a scratch ticket at 2 euros, the game Cash for 5 euros (26% chance of winning) or the Mega Crosswords (34% chance of winning) for 10 euros.In addition, this Friday 13, the FDJ is selling the “Chance en or” scratch ticket!
The year 2023 has two Friday the 13th: Friday January 13 and Friday October 13, 2022. Each year between one and three Friday the 13th are observed. In 2024, same thing, there will be a double Friday the 13th: Friday September 13 and December 13, 2024.
This superstition, sometimes ridiculed, has its origins in the Bible: according to the set of texts considered sacred by believers, Christ was crucified on Good Friday, after a last meal, the Last Supper, taken at 13 around the table. with his apostles… including the traitor Judas. In Greco-Roman and Nordic mythologies, the number 13 was also already frowned upon, but it is the Catholic tradition that associated the number 13 with the Good Friday, day of penance and the Stations of the Cross. Some legends even suggest that Eve bit into the apple from the Garden of Eden on a Friday…
Nothing special has happened on Friday the 13th in the past. The association that connects the day of Friday, the number 13 and misfortune would draw its source from the Bible. According to the New Testament, during the Last Supper (Christ’s last meal), 13 participants sat around the table: Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles. The Gospel of Matthew quotes all those present: “Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother; James, son of Zebedee, and John, his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew, the publican; James, son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Zealot (or the Cananite), and Judas the Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus”. Judas is often presented as the 13th guest, the one who changed everything. Judas the traitor and Friday the 13th are therefore inseparable. The fear of Friday the 13th is also based on the fact that Christ was crucified on a Friday, which will become the “Good Friday“during the week of Easter.
The fear of Friday the 13th would also have its origins in ancient Norse myths. As with the episode of the death of the God Balder. Odin, god of warriors, had once, according to legend, gathered eleven of his god friends for a dinner party at his home in Valhalla. Loki, god of war and evil, annoyed at not being part of the party, decided to invite himself anyway. Only, this thirteenth surprise guest was not welcome. Odin’s son, the handsome Balder, god of love and light, tried to chase the intruder away. A battle broke out between the two gods who had always hated each other. Loki, jealous and malevolent god, fired a poisoned arrow at him in the heart, killing Balder the “beloved”. Since this legend, in Scandinavian countries, the number 13 is considered cursed and being 13 at the table would bring bad luck.
Frigga, or the demonization of pagan beliefs, is another precursor to the fear of Friday the 13th. In Norse mythology, Frigga (or Freya) was the queen of the gods, goddess of love and fertility. She was celebrated by her worshipers on Fridays. Word “Friday”, Friday in English, would come from elsewhere of this celebration and would mean “Freya’s Day”. But in the 10th and 11th centuries, the northern countries were gradually converted to Christianity. We then start to tell that Frigga is actually a witch and that she has been banished to the top of a mountain. In revenge, she would invite, every Friday, the devil and 11 witches to curse men and cast bad spells on them.
Is 13 a destroyer of harmony? The Greeks and Romans also give this number a negative connotation in the Greco-Roman mythologies of Friday the 13th. These two mythologies, which have great similarities, both associate the number 12 with regularity and perfection. Thus, there are 12 Olympian gods, 12 constellations, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 hours of day and night. The number 13, which involves adding one unit to the perfect 12, breaks this regular cycle and introduces disorder. Destroying harmony, it is synonymous with misfortune. As for Friday, it is associated with unfortunate events since it is on this day, in ancient Rome, that the executions of those sentenced to death generally take place.