TODAY IS FRIDAY THE 13TH

By Debbie Bulloch




Today is Friday the 13th . Normally, this is just another day on the calendar. Most people go about their usual routines – get up, eat breakfast, go to work, maybe exercise, meet with friends and then at the end of the day go back to sleep. For many people around the world, however, this date is full of bad omens.

The question then is: when did Friday the 13th become a day of bad omens?

The origins of all this fear of the number 13 in general, and Friday the 13th in particular, are open for debate.

The fear of the number 13, or triskaidekaphobia, is found in many cultures across the world. For example, in ancient Norse mythology, the number 13 was believed to be unlucky. There is a Norse legend that twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla. Loki, the Evil One - referred to in the Encyclopedia Britannica as a "cunning trickster" - had been left off the guest list. Angry about the slight, Loki crashed the party, bringing the total number of attendees to 13. True to character, Loki raised hell by inciting Hod, the blind god of winter, to attack Balder the Good, who was a favorite of the gods. Hod took a spear of mistletoe offered by Loki and obediently hurled it at Balder, killing him instantly and all Valhalla grieved. From this tale, the Norse apparently concluded that 13 people at a dinner party is just plain bad luck.

Many Hindus also believe that the number 13 was unlucky. They believe that it is always unlucky for 13 people to gather in one place.

The Bible tells us there were exactly 13 persons present at the Last Supper. One of the dinner guests — a discipline of Christ — betrayed Jesus Christ, setting the stage for the Crucifixion. The Crucifixion itself occurred on a Friday, thus joining the number 13 and the day Friday into one potently unlucky combination.

Some scholars, however, go all the way back to the Garden of Eden to explain Friday’s bad reputation. It was on a Friday, supposedly, that Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit. Adam bit into the forbidden fruit and they were both ejected from Paradise. Tradition also holds that the Great Flood began on a Friday; God tongue-tied the builders of the Tower of Babel on a Friday; and the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday.

Another theory, recently offered up as historical fact by Dan Brown in his novel The Da Vinci Code, holds that phobia about Friday the 13th came about as a catastrophe - a single historical event that happened nearly 700 years ago. The catastrophe was the decimation of the Knights Templar, the legendary order of "warrior monks" formed during the Christian Crusades to combat Islam. Renowned as a fighting force for 200 years, by the 1300s the order had grown so pervasive and powerful it was perceived as a political threat by kings and popes alike and brought down by a church-state conspiracy.

On October 13, 1307, a day so infamous that Friday the 13th would become a synonym for ill fortune, officers of King Philip IV of France carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left several thousand Templars — knights, sergeants, priests, and serving brethren — in chains, charged with heresy, blasphemy, various obscenities, and homosexual practices. None of these charges was ever proven, even in France — and the Order was found innocent elsewhere — but in the seven years following the arrests, hundreds of Templars suffered excruciating tortures intended to force "confessions," and more than a hundred died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake.

Katharine Kurtz, Tales of the Knights Templar (Warner Books, 1995)

Regardless of the ancient sources of the superstition, it is still well-entrenched in modern society. Even seemingly rational, intelligent people fall prey to this superstition.

American industrialist Henry Ford, as the story goes, refused to do business on Friday the 13th. Ford did everything he could to avoid having anything to do with Friday the 13th.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) who is better known for helping steer America through the Great Depression, was equally fearful of Friday the 13th. "FDR would not depart on a (train) trip on the 13th," said Thomas Fernsler, a University of Delaware mathematician. Fernsler recounted a story that originated with FDR's personal secretary, Grace Tully, who said the former president would order the train to leave the station before midnight on the 12th or after midnight on the morning of the 14th.

In a final act of “defiance,” FDR died in 1945 on April 12. Thursday, April 12.

"He avoided traveling to the beyond on the 13th," joked Bob Clark, head archivist at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

Of course, there may be something to people’s fears of the number 13 and of Friday the 13th. Triskaidekaphobes say that the number 13 is the reason behind the explosion of Apollo 13. Apollo 13 took off at exactly 1:13 p.m. (1313 military time) on 04.11.70 (digits that add up to 13: 4 + 1 + 1 + 7 = 13).

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was born on Friday the 13th, which may explain why the Cuban people have been so profoundly unlucky over the last 40 years.

I am not the superstitious type. I do not believe that the number 13 is unlucky and I certainly do not think that Friday the 13th is a day full of bad omens.

In fact, today is a particularly gorgeous day. As I look out my office window the sun shines big and bright; big, billowy white clouds lazily sail across an incredibly blue sky.

On second thought, I think that I am beginning to feel a bit superstitious about today. I am going to pick up the telephone, call my boss and tell him that I am invoking my ancient Norse heritage so that I cannot continue working on this Friday the 13th.

Then I am going to pack my lunch, get in the car and head for the beach where I can watch the seagulls and pelicans have fun!

Ciao!