Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

Subject: Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:57 am

Other than Halloween, when I am lucky enough to get a Friday the 13th, it is my next favorite day of any year.

Have a fabulously, wickedly evil one, ya'll!

naughty

Subject: Re: Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:22 pm

Thanks!

Happy Friday the 13th to all! grin

Guest

To all the same.

By the by, what is the significance of Friday the 13th? I've never been explained it other than it's supposedly "unlucky".

Subject: Re: Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Fri Nov 13, 2009 2:51 pm

Happy Friday the 13th!

I'm not sure of the significance, Nsane, but I'm curious as well. Hmm, might have to do some research.

I usually have stellar luck on Friday the 13th; hope everyone here does too. Smile

Subject: Re: Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Fri Nov 13, 2009 3:11 pm

I thought I remembered it having to do with the major first stock market crash, but I've read that it has to do with Judas being the thirteenth at the last super. Christians aren't suppose be superstitious though so I don't know.

This has nothing to do what so ever with Judas or anything related.

I get nostagic on Friday the 13th. and hope all those celebrating the day and holding parties have a great time!!!!

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Friday_13th

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Friday_13th

Subject: Re: Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Fri Nov 13, 2009 6:53 pm

To my knowledge christ was crucified on a Friday and Judas was the 13th disciple -

13 has always been a good number for me and workwise I can be a slouch as nobody wants to move house on Friday 13th!

Guest

I thought there was pagan significance also...

Guest

It seems no one is really sure how it started...

According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a "Friday the 13th" superstition before the 19th century.[4][5][6] The earliest known documented reference in English occurs in an 1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini:

[Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; and if it be true that, like so many other Italians, he regarded Friday as an unlucky day, and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday, the 13th of November, he died.[7]

However, some folklore is passed on through oral traditions. In addition, "determining the origins of superstitions is an inexact science, at best. In fact, it's mostly guesswork."[8] Consequently, several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition.

One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.

* 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, that 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[3], and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s.[6][9] It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christian scripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday.[10]

On the other hand, another theory by author Charles Panati, one of the leading authorities on the subject of "Origins" maintains that the superstition can be traced back to ancient myth:

The actual origin of the superstition, though, appears also to be a tale 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."[11]

Another theory about the origin of the superstition traces the event to the arrest of the legendary Knights Templar. According to one expert:

The Knights Templar were a monastic military order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 C.E., whose mission was to protect Christian pilgrims during the Crusades. Over the next two centuries, 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.[4]

The connection between the superstition and the Knights Templar was popularized in the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. However, some experts think that it is relatively recent and is a modern-day invention.[3][8][9] For example, the superstition is rarely found before the 20th century, when it became extremely common. One author, noting that references are all but nonexistent before 1907 but frequently seen thereafter, has argued that its popularity derives from the publication that year of Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth,[12] in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.[4]

A further theory goes back to a combination of Paganism, Christianity, and the Battle of Hastings. For many, the number 13 was considered a lucky number (such as 13 lunar cycles each year), but with the efforts of Christianity attempting to degrade all things Pagan, they promoted 13 as an unlucky number, with Friday thus also being considered a bad day of the week. However, on Friday the 13th of October 1066, the decision was made by King Harold II to go to battle on Saturday the 14th of October, rather than allow his troops a day of rest (despite his army having made a long and arduous march from a battle near York just 3 weeks earlier).

This decision in going to battle before the English troops were rested (the English lost and King Harold was killed), further established Friday the 13th as an unlucky day.[citation needed]

In some other countries, instead of Friday, Tuesday the 13th is considered bad luck.[citation needed] For example, the Fall of Constantinople, when the city fell to the Ottomans (a fact which marked the end of the Byzantine Empire), happened Tuesday, May 29, 1453, and is why Greeks consider Tuesday to be an unlucky day.

Subject: Re: Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:31 pm

^^ Interesting...

From the article:
"[Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; and if it be true that, like so many other Italians, he regarded Friday as an unlucky day, and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday, the 13th of November, he died."

Italian for Friday: venerdi. The day named for Venus.

Also from the article:
"The actual origin of the superstition, though, appears also to be a tale 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."

Seems that in two cultures, Friday the 13th superstitions might have been rooted in anxiety toward love/sex. I don't know; I'm just having fun observing and playing with theories.

Guest

^^Yes, that is a nice connection, though I'm wondering what area they're talking about. Most of the Northern traditions said Freyja was the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility not Frigga. Though in the mainland, they were sometimes seen as the same goddess.... It just depended on the area.

Subject: Re: Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Sat Nov 14, 2009 5:33 pm

^ Very interesting stuff!

Subject: Re: Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Sat Nov 14, 2009 8:24 pm

There are so many different reasons why Friday 13th is unlucky that is hard to keep up with.

Subject: Re: Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:38 pm

Seemed like a good day to resurrect this one.

Happy Friday the Thriteenth!

Friday the Thirteenth a secret cultural reference... or just an unlucky day?

Once again we must prepare ourselves for the dreaded Friday the thirteenth! Are you taking any chances on this day of fright and fear? If so, you are clearly not superstitious, nor do you suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia, the pathological fear of Friday 13.

However (according to the online encyclopedia) Friday the 13th is actually unlucky for some of us. Psychologists have found that people are especially likely to have accidents or fall ill on Friday 13th, due (according to them!) to a heightened state of anxiety on that day. The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina estimates that in the United States alone, $800 to $900 million is lost in business each Friday 13th because people will not travel or go to work.

So a lot of people think Friday 13 is an unlucky day, but why?? To answer this, there are two or three questions we must first ask ourselves about the luck of Friday the thirteenth:

Why Friday?
and why the thirteenth?
Most important of all, is it really unlucky?
In ancient times, before the development of Western Civilisation as we know it, people had a very different conception of the world from the view held by most Westerners today. In the first place, their relationship with natural energies and powers was much closer and more intense than that of today's urban dweller. The mechanised, electrified environment of the 21st century city is a place where natural cycles can easily be overlooked — or to be more particular, deliberately overcome.

Life in those times tended to be a series of ritualised and sanctified interactions with nature. These sacred events have crystallised over the years into the festivals, saints' days and holiday cycles we still celebrate today (such as Christmas and Easter), although with little general understanding of their primary intention and meaning.

More at the link

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