Why do you think some people are fearful of Friday the 13th? I remember planning my trip back from Miri to the US early this year. Doug talked about delaying returning to California, maybe till May. May? Ok, but I am not travelling on Friday the 13th! Yes, there was a Friday the 13th last May. But we left Miri in April not in May so the subject of having to travel on Friday the 13th did not arise.
I am not, generally, a supertitious person and Friday the 13th does not normally bother me, except when it comes to getting on a plane on that particular day! Heheh.
It seems that on Friday the 13th some people would not go to work, go to restaurants, and most definitely would not plan a wedding on this day! And most interestingly according to an abstract study published in the British Medical Journal in 1993 entitled "Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?" there was an increase by as much as 52% in hospital addmissions due to transport related accidents despite fewer people choosing to drive their cars on that day!
What are the odds do you think that these accidents had more to do with attitudes and behaviour that led to self-fulfilling prophecies, like bad things happening to oneself on Friday the 13th? Heheh, something to think about.
Here are some stories related to number 13 and Friday.
13: The Devils Dozen
It is said: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven.
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Christians have traditionally been wary of Fridays because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Additionally, some theologians hold that Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit on a Friday, and that the Great Flood began on a Friday. In the past, many Christians would never begin any new project or trip on a Friday, fearing they would be doomed from the start.
Some historians suggest the Christian distrust of Fridays is actually linked to the early Catholic Church's overall supression of pagan religions and women. In the Roman calendar, Friday was devoted to Venus, the goddess of love. When Norsemen adapted the calendar, they named the day after Frigg, or Freya, Norse goddesses connected to love and sex. Both of these strong female figures once posed a threat to male-dominated Christianity, the theory goes, so the Christian church vilified the day named after them.
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