Happy Friday the 13th ** A Health Issue?? ** Why It Is Unlucky For Some Folks?? ** Part II

[Guest guest]

Personally..I LOVE Fridays ;-) ... not only is it the END of the week, but it is

the beginning of the Shabbat ... my day of rest - of peace, and nope....not

Jewish :-) .. .... but am grafted in ... :-) besides....you can only have

something 'bad' if there was something GOOD in the first place.... ....and now,

you know the rest of the story ....as he says :-)

 

 

Blessings,

Pam

 

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-

Butch Owen

Friday, February 13, 2004 8:47 PM

Happy Friday the 13th ** A Health Issue?? ** Why It

Is Unlucky For Some Folks?? ** Part II

 

 

 

The Witch-Goddess

 

The name " Friday " came from a Norse deity worshipped on the sixth day,

known either as Frigg (goddess of marriage and fertility), or Freya

(goddess of sex and fertility), or both, the two figures having become

intertwined in the handing-down of myths over time (the etymology of

" Friday " has been given both ways). Frigg/Freya corresponded to Venus,

the goddess of love of the Romans, who named the sixth day of the week

in her honor " dies Veneris. "

 

Friday was actually considered quite lucky by pre-Christian Teutonic

peoples, we are told — especially as a day to get married — because of

its traditional association with love and fertility. All that changed

when Christianity came along. The goddess of the sixth day — most likely

Freya in this context, given that the cat was her sacred animal — was

recast in post-pagan folklore as a witch, and her day became associated

with evil doings.

 

Various legends developed in that vein, but one is of particular

interest: As the story goes, the witches of the north used to observe

their sabbath by gathering in a cemetery in the dark of the moon. On one

such occasion the Friday goddess, Freya herself, came down from her

sanctuary in the mountaintops and appeared before the group, who

numbered only 12 at the time, and gave them one of her cats, after which

the witches' coven — and, by tradition, every properly-formed coven

since — comprised exactly 13.

 

The Unluckiest Day of All

 

The astute reader will have noted that while we have thus far insinuated

any number of possible connections between events, practices and beliefs

attributed to ancient cultures and the superstitious fear of Fridays and

the number 13, we have yet to explain how, why or when these separate

strands of folklore converged — if that is indeed what happened — to

mark Friday the 13th as the unluckiest day of all.

 

There's a very simple reason for that: nobody knows.

 

One theory holds that it came about not as the result of a convergence,

but 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, as recounted by Katharine Kurtz in " Tales of

the Knights Templar " (Warner Books: 1995):

 

(Butch's Note .. similar to the Jannisaries .. brought down by Ottoman

Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Suleyman invited them all to a banquet

then had his artillery ring the hills and destroy the banquet hall.)

 

" 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. "

 

A Thoroughly Modern Phenomenon?

 

There are drawbacks to the " day so infamous " thesis, not the least of

which is that it attributes great cultural significance to a relatively

obscure historical event. Even more problematic, for this or any other

theory positing premodern origins for Friday the 13th superstitions, is

the fact that no one has been able to document the existence of such

beliefs prior to the 19th century. If people who lived prior to the late

1800s perceived Friday the 13th as a day of special misfortune, no

evidence remains to prove it. Some scholars suspect the stigma is a

thoroughly modern phenomenon exacerbated by 20th-century media hype.

 

Friday the 13th doesn't even merit a mention in E. Cobham Brewer's

voluminous 1898 edition of the " Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, " though

one does find entries for " Friday, an Unlucky Day " and " Thirteen

Unlucky. " When the date of ill fate finally does make an appearance in

later editions of the text, it is without extravagant claims as to the

superstition's historicity or longevity. The very brevity of the entry

is instructive — " A particularly unlucky Friday. See Thirteen " —

implying that the extra dollop of misfortune attributed to Friday the

13th can be accounted for in terms of an accrual, so to speak, of bad

omens: Unlucky Friday + Unlucky 13 = Unluckier Friday.

 

If that's the case, we're guilty of a misnomer for labeling Friday the

13th " the unluckiest day of all, " a characterization perhaps better

reserved for, say, a Friday the 13th on which one breaks a mirror, walks

under a ladder and spies a black cat crossing one's path — a day, if

there ever was one, best spent in the safety of one's own home with

doors locked, shutters closed and fingers crossed.

 

Sources:

 

.. Bowen, John. " Friday the 13th. " Salon magazine, 13 Aug 1999.

.. Brewer, E. Cobham. " The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. " (1898

Edition in Hypertext).

.. " Days of the Week: Friday. " The Mystical World Wide Web.

.. de Lys, Claudia. " The Giant Book of Superstitions. " New Jersey:

Citadel Press, 1979.

.. Duncan, David E. " Calendar: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a

True and Accurate Year. " New York: Avon, 1998.

.. Ferm, Vergilius. " A Brief Dictionary of American Superstitions. " New

York: Philosophical Library, 1965.

.. Krischke, Wolfgang. " This Just Might Be Your Lucky Day. " Frankfurter

Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 Nov 2001.

.. Kurtz, Katharine. " Tales of the Knights Templar. " New York: Warner

Books, 1995.

.. Opie, Iona and Tatem, Moira. " A Dictionary of Superstitions. " Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 1989.

.. Panati, Charles. " Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. "

New York: Harper Collins, 1989.

.. Scanlon, T.J., et al. " Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health? "

British Medical Journal. (Dec. 18-25, 1993): 1584-6.

 

 

~ David Emery

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

The Witch-Goddess

 

The name " Friday " came from a Norse deity worshipped on the sixth day,

known either as Frigg (goddess of marriage and fertility), or Freya

(goddess of sex and fertility), or both, the two figures having become

intertwined in the handing-down of myths over time (the etymology of

" Friday " has been given both ways). Frigg/Freya corresponded to Venus,

the goddess of love of the Romans, who named the sixth day of the week

in her honor " dies Veneris. "

 

Friday was actually considered quite lucky by pre-Christian Teutonic

peoples, we are told — especially as a day to get married — because of

its traditional association with love and fertility. All that changed

when Christianity came along. The goddess of the sixth day — most likely

Freya in this context, given that the cat was her sacred animal — was

recast in post-pagan folklore as a witch, and her day became associated

with evil doings.

 

Various legends developed in that vein, but one is of particular

interest: As the story goes, the witches of the north used to observe

their sabbath by gathering in a cemetery in the dark of the moon. On one

such occasion the Friday goddess, Freya herself, came down from her

sanctuary in the mountaintops and appeared before the group, who

numbered only 12 at the time, and gave them one of her cats, after which

the witches' coven — and, by tradition, every properly-formed coven

since — comprised exactly 13.

 

The Unluckiest Day of All

 

The astute reader will have noted that while we have thus far insinuated

any number of possible connections between events, practices and beliefs

attributed to ancient cultures and the superstitious fear of Fridays and

the number 13, we have yet to explain how, why or when these separate

strands of folklore converged — if that is indeed what happened — to

mark Friday the 13th as the unluckiest day of all.

 

There's a very simple reason for that: nobody knows.

 

One theory holds that it came about not as the result of a convergence,

but 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, as recounted by Katharine Kurtz in " Tales of

the Knights Templar " (Warner Books: 1995):

 

(Butch's Note .. similar to the Jannisaries .. brought down by Ottoman

Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Suleyman invited them all to a banquet

then had his artillery ring the hills and destroy the banquet hall.)

 

" 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. "

 

A Thoroughly Modern Phenomenon?

 

There are drawbacks to the " day so infamous " thesis, not the least of

which is that it attributes great cultural significance to a relatively

obscure historical event. Even more problematic, for this or any other

theory positing premodern origins for Friday the 13th superstitions, is

the fact that no one has been able to document the existence of such

beliefs prior to the 19th century. If people who lived prior to the late

1800s perceived Friday the 13th as a day of special misfortune, no

evidence remains to prove it. Some scholars suspect the stigma is a

thoroughly modern phenomenon exacerbated by 20th-century media hype.

 

Friday the 13th doesn't even merit a mention in E. Cobham Brewer's

voluminous 1898 edition of the " Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, " though

one does find entries for " Friday, an Unlucky Day " and " Thirteen

Unlucky. " When the date of ill fate finally does make an appearance in

later editions of the text, it is without extravagant claims as to the

superstition's historicity or longevity. The very brevity of the entry

is instructive — " A particularly unlucky Friday. See Thirteen " —

implying that the extra dollop of misfortune attributed to Friday the

13th can be accounted for in terms of an accrual, so to speak, of bad

omens: Unlucky Friday + Unlucky 13 = Unluckier Friday.

 

If that's the case, we're guilty of a misnomer for labeling Friday the

13th " the unluckiest day of all, " a characterization perhaps better

reserved for, say, a Friday the 13th on which one breaks a mirror, walks

under a ladder and spies a black cat crossing one's path — a day, if

there ever was one, best spent in the safety of one's own home with

doors locked, shutters closed and fingers crossed.

 

Sources:

 

... Bowen, John. " Friday the 13th. " Salon magazine, 13 Aug 1999.

... Brewer, E. Cobham. " The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. " (1898

Edition in Hypertext).

... " Days of the Week: Friday. " The Mystical World Wide Web.

... de Lys, Claudia. " The Giant Book of Superstitions. " New Jersey:

Citadel Press, 1979.

... Duncan, David E. " Calendar: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a

True and Accurate Year. " New York: Avon, 1998.

... Ferm, Vergilius. " A Brief Dictionary of American Superstitions. " New

York: Philosophical Library, 1965.

... Krischke, Wolfgang. " This Just Might Be Your Lucky Day. " Frankfurter

Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 Nov 2001.

... Kurtz, Katharine. " Tales of the Knights Templar. " New York: Warner

Books, 1995.

... Opie, Iona and Tatem, Moira. " A Dictionary of Superstitions. " Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 1989.

... Panati, Charles. " Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. "

New York: Harper Collins, 1989.

... Scanlon, T.J., et al. " Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health? "

British Medical Journal. (Dec. 18-25, 1993): 1584-6.

 

 

~ David Emery