Friday, 13 March 2009

• Friday the 13th - oooooooooo!

                                                      

     Ooooooo! I'm so scared! NOT!!

     Today is the second of three Friday the 13ths we'll have in 2009, the previous one being last month, and the last one coming in November. This particular phenomenon happens only every eleven years. For some people, Friday the 13th triggers the unreasonable, morbid fear called friggatriskaidekaphobia, which is...wait for it... the unreasonable, morbid fear of Friday the 13th.

     This word can be broken down into three parts - triskaideka, or thirteen; phobia, or fear of; and frigg. This part is the one i found most interesting, and didn't know until i looked it up today.

     Frigga was the Norse goddess of fertility, love and marriage. She was the equivalent of the Roman goddess Venus. Friday was named in honor of Frigga*, as she was normally worshipped on the sixth day of the week (the first day being Sunday). When Christianity began to overtake that part of the world, the Christians declared Frigga a witch, and they began calling Friday the "witches' sabbath". Legend has it that Frigga was banished to the top of a mountain, where she convened with eleven other witches plus the devil to plot evils to be unleashed upon the human population on the days when she was formerly worshipped (Fridays). Thus, people came to fear Fridays and the number 13, and established a particular foreboding when the two combined.

     Of course, the superstition we're most familiar with is the one about the Last Supper, where Christ met with his apostles a final time before His crucifixion. Judas was the thirteenth guest at this meal, and afterwards he met with the authorities to betray Jesus. Tradition has it that Christ was crucified on a Friday, too. (Shouldn't we be calling that "Bad Friday"??)

     One of the things i could never figure out about this one is that, whenever Jesus met with all his apostles, there were always thirteen people there. The Last Supper certainly wasn't the only time there were 13 people in the group. It is true, however, that this was the only time Judas acted on his evil intentions.

     We already know that a lot of buildings don't have a floor officially designated the 13th (although common sense dictates that the floor immediately above the twelfth IS the thirteenth, whether they label it so or not!), and many hospitals and apartment buildings won't have Room 13.

     Businesses stand to lose millions of dollars as superstitious employees call off work on Friday the 13th, and there are those people who will not even get out of bed on that day, much less travel. Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of those who would never travel on the thirteenth day of any month, regardless whether or not it was a Friday.

     And then there's always this:

                           

     Because of all these things, and the fact that most of us grew up hearing about and observing others' reactions to these superstitions, we always expect something bad to happen to us on Friday the 13th. What we don't realize is that bad things can and do happen every day - maybe not specifically to us, but to somebody, somewhere. This has always been true, and will always be true. But because we've becomed conditioned to expect bad things on this day, if anything does happen, it "proves" the superstitions true, and we remember the incidents more intensly and readily than if the same things were to happen on any other day.

     My thoughts? If you're expecting trouble, you're gonna find it... Friday the 13th or not.

     What do you think? Do you fear Friday the 13th? Do you have any special things you may or may not do today? Or do you shrug it all off as so much spooky silliness?

     As for me.... TGIF!!

     Grandma Kitty

    * For more information on how the days of the week were named, go to Days Of The Week. It's really interesting!   

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