*Ø* Blogmanac | June 13 | Friday the Thirteenth
But once on a Friday ('tis ever they say),
A day when misfortune is aptest to fall.
Saxe: Good Dog of Bretté, stanza 3
Sir Winston Churchill might have said, “Friday is my lucky day. I was born, christened, married, and knighted on that day; and all my best accidents have befallen me on a Friday”, Scots might prefer Friday for marriage, and Scandinavians might tend to see Friday as lucky, but in the traditions of most European countries, Friday is the unlucky day. When Friday falls on the 13th of the month, as is well known, the day is said to be especially unlucky and articles like these appear all over the Net and in the media, particularly if not much news is about.
The number 13 has long been considered by superstitious Westerners to be unlucky. Even today, many towns and suburbs don’t have 13 as a street number, or 13th Street, and most hotels do not have rooms with 13 on the door. Many tall buildings do not have a 13th storey, with the elevator going straight from Floor 12 to 14.
There are numerous origins given for the persistent superstition that in the West, Friday the 13th is an unlucky day. The most likely of these is that Jesus Christ was killed on a Friday, and that Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed him, was the thirteenth person of Jesus and the 12 apostles.
Just as tridecaphobia (Hyper Dictionary prefers triskaidekaphobia) is purportedly the official name for the morbid fear of the number 13, so various other fanciful terms are given by different commentators for the phobia associated with Friday the 13th, including paraskevidekatriaphobia and friggatriskaidekaphobia, though one suspects these were invented by journalists on slow news days. In Australia, where people are not too bright and will bet on two flies crawling up a wall, the New South Wales State Lotteries report that Friday the 13th is always one of their biggest days, with turnover about 50 per cent up. Eric W Weisstein, by the way, shows that Friday is slightly more likely than any of the days of the week to fall on a Friday.
Frigg's day
In ancient Rome Friday was known as dies Veneris, the day dedicated to Venus, hence the French vendredi. In the northern nations, the sixth day of the week was named (perhaps in imitation of the Roman custom) for the goddess Frigg, or Freya, mother of Balder; in Old English it was called Frig-daeg.
Friday begins the Sabbath for both Muslims Jews, and Muslims say that Adam was created on a Friday and it was on Friday that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and on a Friday they died. According to Biblical lore, Noah’s Great Flood began on a Friday and the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on the sixth day of the week.
We have already mentioned Judas and the crucifixion of Christ; this has a parallel in the old ‘pagan’ religion of the North: twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla. Loki, the trickster deity, was excluded, but he came anyway and the guests now numbered 13. Loki killed the god Balder at the banquet by tricking Balder's blind twin brother Hod into throwing a mistletoe fig (dart) at the god.
The doomed Apollo 13 space mission brought the unlucky number to the forefront of the media. Apollo 13 was launched at 1313 hours (USA Central Time), from pad 39 (3 X 13) and was aborted on April 13, 1970. It is worth noting that there are 13 moons and 13 menstrual cycles in a year.
Although the Friday 13 superstition is older than the 14th century, there exists a theory that it derives from Friday, October 13, 1307, when France’s King Philip IV (le Bel, or ‘the good-looking’) had all the Knights Templar in France arrested, accused of heresy and tortured into making confessions. It is unlikely, but interesting in its way.
Be that as it may, my favourite story associated with unlucky Friday (whether the 13th or not), is repeated widely around the Net, but seemingly without substantiation. One website puts it thus, and I leave it with you to ponder:
“Sailors were particularly superstitious … often refusing to ship out to sea on a Friday. According to legend, in the 18th century, the British Navy commissioned a ship called the H.M.S. Friday in order to quell the superstition. The navy selected the crew on a Friday, launched the ship on a Friday and even selected a man named James Friday as the ship's captain. Then, one Friday morning, the ship set off on its maiden voyage – and disappeared forever.”
If I find out if there’s any truth in it, I’ll tell you next Friday the 13th when I, like the rest of the 'experts', trot out the stock article.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Friday 13th quiz
Friday the 13th e-cards
But once on a Friday ('tis ever they say),
A day when misfortune is aptest to fall.
Saxe: Good Dog of Bretté, stanza 3
Sir Winston Churchill might have said, “Friday is my lucky day. I was born, christened, married, and knighted on that day; and all my best accidents have befallen me on a Friday”, Scots might prefer Friday for marriage, and Scandinavians might tend to see Friday as lucky, but in the traditions of most European countries, Friday is the unlucky day. When Friday falls on the 13th of the month, as is well known, the day is said to be especially unlucky and articles like these appear all over the Net and in the media, particularly if not much news is about.
The number 13 has long been considered by superstitious Westerners to be unlucky. Even today, many towns and suburbs don’t have 13 as a street number, or 13th Street, and most hotels do not have rooms with 13 on the door. Many tall buildings do not have a 13th storey, with the elevator going straight from Floor 12 to 14.
There are numerous origins given for the persistent superstition that in the West, Friday the 13th is an unlucky day. The most likely of these is that Jesus Christ was killed on a Friday, and that Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed him, was the thirteenth person of Jesus and the 12 apostles.
Just as tridecaphobia (Hyper Dictionary prefers triskaidekaphobia) is purportedly the official name for the morbid fear of the number 13, so various other fanciful terms are given by different commentators for the phobia associated with Friday the 13th, including paraskevidekatriaphobia and friggatriskaidekaphobia, though one suspects these were invented by journalists on slow news days. In Australia, where people are not too bright and will bet on two flies crawling up a wall, the New South Wales State Lotteries report that Friday the 13th is always one of their biggest days, with turnover about 50 per cent up. Eric W Weisstein, by the way, shows that Friday is slightly more likely than any of the days of the week to fall on a Friday.
Frigg's day
In ancient Rome Friday was known as dies Veneris, the day dedicated to Venus, hence the French vendredi. In the northern nations, the sixth day of the week was named (perhaps in imitation of the Roman custom) for the goddess Frigg, or Freya, mother of Balder; in Old English it was called Frig-daeg.
Friday begins the Sabbath for both Muslims Jews, and Muslims say that Adam was created on a Friday and it was on Friday that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and on a Friday they died. According to Biblical lore, Noah’s Great Flood began on a Friday and the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on the sixth day of the week.
We have already mentioned Judas and the crucifixion of Christ; this has a parallel in the old ‘pagan’ religion of the North: twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla. Loki, the trickster deity, was excluded, but he came anyway and the guests now numbered 13. Loki killed the god Balder at the banquet by tricking Balder's blind twin brother Hod into throwing a mistletoe fig (dart) at the god.
The doomed Apollo 13 space mission brought the unlucky number to the forefront of the media. Apollo 13 was launched at 1313 hours (USA Central Time), from pad 39 (3 X 13) and was aborted on April 13, 1970. It is worth noting that there are 13 moons and 13 menstrual cycles in a year.
Although the Friday 13 superstition is older than the 14th century, there exists a theory that it derives from Friday, October 13, 1307, when France’s King Philip IV (le Bel, or ‘the good-looking’) had all the Knights Templar in France arrested, accused of heresy and tortured into making confessions. It is unlikely, but interesting in its way.
Be that as it may, my favourite story associated with unlucky Friday (whether the 13th or not), is repeated widely around the Net, but seemingly without substantiation. One website puts it thus, and I leave it with you to ponder:
“Sailors were particularly superstitious … often refusing to ship out to sea on a Friday. According to legend, in the 18th century, the British Navy commissioned a ship called the H.M.S. Friday in order to quell the superstition. The navy selected the crew on a Friday, launched the ship on a Friday and even selected a man named James Friday as the ship's captain. Then, one Friday morning, the ship set off on its maiden voyage – and disappeared forever.”
If I find out if there’s any truth in it, I’ll tell you next Friday the 13th when I, like the rest of the 'experts', trot out the stock article.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Friday 13th quiz
Friday the 13th e-cards
Pip Wilson posted item above at 1:40 PM | Permalink
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