Are you superstitious? It’s amazing how, no matter how realistic and intelligent a person is, they can still feel compelled to complete the rituals involved in superstitions,(throwing spilled salt over your left shoulder) or avoid things that make no sense, like walking under a ladder, or stepping on a sidewalk crack.
Which superstitions to you follow, even though you know better?
Are there ones that you believe actually affect people if they happen? ( A black cat crosses in front of you, you break a mirror)
What’s the one about masturbation will make you go blind? lol
Are there any superstitions particular to the making movie business?
There are many theories as to where this Unlucky day came from. One is as good as another I guess…
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 for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as "Witches’ Sabbath.
Charles Panati, Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, 1987, p. 13.
Happy Friday the 13th!
Apart from the tale in Norse mythology, Friday the 13th has another historical origin:
The Knights Templar were a monastic military order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 C.E., whose mission was to protect Christian pilgrims during the Crusades. Over the next two centuries, the Knights Templar became extraordinarily powerful and wealthy. Some historians speculate that during their excavations in the catacombs beneath the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, they found important documents revealing true origins of Christianity; and they used these documents to blackmail the church. Philip, the king of France who was threatened by that power and eager to acquire their wealth, ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307: Friday the 13th.
Some of the Knights Templar who escaped, went to England and eventually founded Freemasonary.
On another note, Friday the 13th is one of my all time favorite horror series. Jason Voorhees is the ultimate bad ass killing machine.
You.Can’t.Stop.Jason.
Thus as it has been argued that secret societies rule, it is further argued that Friday 10/13/1307 is where the establishment of Friday the 13th as “unlucky” came from.
I do not know from the Friday think but in Southern European Latin countries bad luck day comes on Tuesday the 13th not the Friday.
The Templars were mostly French.
So I go with prechristian paganism as setting the day.
Tuesday for the Romans, Friday for the Germans.
The reason why 13 is a bad number among indoeuropans comes because that number often represents the the unaccountable.
See, the ancients originally were able to count to twelve.
The 10 fingers of the hands and the two legs.
Seem most indoeuropean languages and you see that numbers have proper names until twelve, after twelve they become a composite (thirdteen, fourteen,?) So there are also 12 hours to a day, 12 months to a year, the radious of a circle is measured in multiples of 12 until you got the 360.
So 13 represents the unknown.
In the Indoeuropean tradition that was joined by Christianity idea of the Last Supper. 13 to a table, one gets betrayed and cruxified, one commits suicide.
13 became the number of uncertainty.
13 is the lunar cycle; a number of completion, in tune and in synchronicity with the moon and nature, the moon moves 13 degrees per day, the tarot deck contains 13 of each suit, the 13th card is the death card (completion), the body has 13 major joints, etc…