Blame Someone Else Day

Taking place on the first Friday the 13th of the year, Blame Someone Else Day is a day when anything that goes wrong can be blamed on someone else. It is believed the day started after the alarm clock of Anne Moeller of Clio, Michigan, failed to go off on the morning of the first Friday the 13th of 1982, which was August 13. This caused her to be late for the things she needed to do during the day, she decided someone else needed to be blamed for her tardiness, and she chose to spread the blame around to various people.

Friday the 13th has long been known as a day when things may go wrong and has been associated with superstition, making it the perfect day to blame any problems that do occur on others. Its association with superstition can be traced back to at least three things. First, in the Bible, there are 13 guests at the Last Supper, including Jesus and his 12 apostles. One of the guests is Judas, who goes on to betray Jesus the same night. Because of this, it became superstitious to have 13 guests at a table, and then the number itself started being seen as having bad luck. Additionally, Jesus was crucified on a Friday, which made people superstitious about Fridays as well.

A second reason why Friday the 13th may have become associated with superstition deals with Norse mythology. In it, the trickster god Loki tricked the blind god Höðr to kill his brother Balder with a dart of mistletoe. Legend says that the death took place at a dinner that was held for 12 gods and that Loki—the 13th god—came and interrupted the meal.

A third reason explaining the association of Friday the 13th with superstition dates to the early twentieth century. The novel Friday, the Thirteenth by Thomas Lawson was released in 1907. It told the story of a stockbroker who picked Friday the 13th as the day to manipulate the stock market in order to bring down Wall Street. The book caused superstition with stockbrokers whenever Friday the 13th came around, and it helped popularize the idea that Friday the 13th means something bad will happen. But if something bad does happen today, there is no need to accept the blame for it—it's Blame Someone Else Day!

How to Observe Blame Someone Else Day

Celebrate the day by blaming someone else for everything that goes wrong. Are you late for an appointment? It was someone else's fault. Did you forget something? There is no way that it was your fault! Some would say that you should take the blame for the things that go wrong in your life, and others would blame them on it being Friday the 13th. But you know better; someone else caused the mishaps! The day could also be spent celebrating Friday the 13th. Listen to some songs that deal with superstition, watch films from the Friday the 13th film series, play Friday the 13th the Game, or read Thomas Lawson's Friday, the Thirteenth.

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