Tomorrow is my birthday. Tomorrow is Friday the 13th. I am not a big believer in things either lucky or unlucky so the fact that it falls on Friday and is the 13th day of the month really doesn’t bother me. On the contrary it sort of excites me because I love to see people’s reactions when I try to have birthday celebrations on a Friday the 13th. This year had no less than THREE Friday the 13th’s in it.
I looked it up and there are several possible explanations why the day is interpreted as being unlucky or having a bad omen on it. All of them are inherently silly like the belief that there is something wrong with the number 666. Here are just a few for your brain to ponder.
– Several theological scholars believe that Christ is thought to have been crucified on a Friday, which was a rather popular execution day among the Romans. (Yet, Christians don’t call it Bad Friday.)
– Friday was known in Britain as Hangman’s Day on which execution by rope hanging were carried out.
– In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness.
– There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, which having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
– Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century’s The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects.
– Black Friday is a term that has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s.
– All the Knights Templar in France, a monastic military order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 C.E., whose mission was to protect Christian pilgrims during the Crusades were secretly arrested Friday, October 13, 1307 – Friday the 13th
No matter how you interpret this it is still a pretty silly belief. Although this one, unlike some others I won’t go into, is pretty benign. In fact it’s pretty humorous. Now go walk under some ladders behind black cats and don’t forget to throw some salt over your shoulder while you do.