Friday, August 13, 2010

Friday the 13th

I've always wondered why Friday the 13th was so "unlucky". Or the number 13 for that matter. I decided to research it. The Superstition didn't become widely know until after 1907 after a novel about a stock broker trying to cause panic on Wall Street was published. But its origin dates back to Paganism and Mythology. Namely a myth about thirteen diners and the prediction that one would die. (One was later murdered by a mistletoe dart). For years 13 and Friday were considered unlucky and together...well you get the drift.

Along comes Christianity.

Christians consider Friday and 13 to be unlucky due to the fact, according to their Scriptures, there were 13 diners at the Last Supper and Jesus died on a Friday (Sound familiar?) When the Norse peoples converted to Christianity, the free spirited goddess of love and fertility, Frigga, was banished to a mountian top and labeled a witch. (Frigga, by the way, had Friday named after her and her name appears in the long word that means the fear of Friday the 13th) Many early Christians called Friday "Witches' Sabbath"


Well now you know the sorta history of Friday the 13th. So go out there, break a mirror, cross paths with a black cat while walking under a ladder.

Happy Friday the 13th

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