FRIDAY the 13th

So is Friday the 13th really unlucky?

 

Out of the 10(ish) Fridays the13ths in the past 5 years, there have 2 natural disasters.

• Hurricane Charley made landfall in south Florida on Friday,August 13, 2004.
• The "Friday the 13th Storm" struck Buffalo, on Friday, October 13, 2006.

As for the future, the asteroid 2004 MN4 will make its close encounter on Friday, April 13, 2029. Would another combination, say Monday the 5th, be similar? My guess is yes. I've always thought of Monday as the “bad” day of the week.


Rate of accidents

 

The Dutch Center for Insurance Statistics on June 12, 2008, stated that "fewer accidents and reports of fire and theft occur when the 13th of the month falls on a Friday than on other Fridays, because people are more careful.

 

However, a 1993 study in the British Medical Journal compared traffic accidents between Friday 6th and Friday 13th stated that there is a significant increase on Fridays the 13th. OF course, there are more accidents on Fridays than average weekdays (irrespective of the date) probably because of alcohol consumption.


The Number 13

One theory states that Friday the 13th is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day. So why is13 unlucky??

• In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness. (12 months of the year, 12 signs of the zodiacs, 12 hours of the clock, 12 Apostles of Jesus, 12 gods of Olympus … you get the picture.) Therefore, 13 is considered irregular, transgressing this completeness.
• There is a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.

 

What about Friday?

• Friday has been considered an unlucky day since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales.
• Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s.
• Friday has been considered an unlucky day because Jesus was crucified on a Friday.
• In Norse mythology, Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil - a gathering of thirteen - and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as "Witches' Sabbath."

 

 What's the History of Friday the 13th?

 

The Knights Templar became extraordinarily powerful and wealthy. Threatened by that power and eager to acquire their wealth, King Philip secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France on Friday, October 13, 1307 - Friday the 13th.