Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of good or bad luck, but often bad luck. In the Gregorian Calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year. Any month's 13th day will fall on a Friday if the month starts on a Sunday. In 2009 this applies to the months of February, March and November. The next instance of this appears on the calendar for the year 2015.The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskevi (meaning Friday), and dekatreis (meaning thirteen), attached to phobia (meaning fear).
History
According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a "Friday the 13th" superstition before the 19th century. 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.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 fot the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as "Witches' Sabbath."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." Consequently, several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition.
Why 13 is considered as an unlucky number?
- 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.
- Tradition states that Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table during the Last Supper.
- In Norse mythology, a story states that one of the nastiest Norse gods, "Loki", crashed a party at "Valhalla." Valhalla was the "banquet hall of the gods." There were 12 guest present at the hall until Loki arrived. With the mean-spirited Norse god as the 13th guest, the affair turned grim. The story goes that "Balder", "the god of light, joy, and reconciliation", died when Loki tricked Balder's sightless brother Hod into throwing mistletoe at him. Just like Kryptonite to Superman, Mistletoe was the only thing on earth that could kill Balder.
Why Friday is an unlucky day?
- Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterburry Tales, 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 1800.
- 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.
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