Friday the 13th!

this probably has to be one of the most awesomest days on the calendar. Friday the 13th! but all for the wrong reasons, cos its always associated with bad luck, mishaps and stuff.

so after so scholarly research, here's what i found out about friday the 13th:

turns out, there are people who have a phobia of this day, and that morbid fear is called  paraskevidekatriaphobia - pretty long name. Apparently, there isn't any scientific logic behind their fear, but the history behind the day is pretty deep, superstitious and strange. allow me to explain.

according to my research, the fear of Friday the 13th stems from two separate fears -- the fear of the number 13 and the fear of Fridays. Both fears have deep roots in Western culture, most notably in Christian theology.

Thirteen is significant to Christians because it is the number of people who were present at the Last Supper (Jesus and his 12 apostles). Judas, the apostle w ho betrayed Jesus, was the 13th member of the party to arrive.

Christians have traditionally been wary of Fridays because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Some theologians hold that Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit on a Friday, and that the Great Flood began on a Friday. In the past, many Christians would never begin any new project or trip on a Friday, fearing they would be doomed from the start.

on that note as well, sailors were particularly superstitious in this regard, often refusing to ship out on a Friday. According to unverified legend (very likely untrue), the British Navy commissioned a ship in the 1800s called H.M.S. Friday, in order to quell the superstition. The navy selected the crew on a Friday, launched the ship on a Friday and even selected a man named James Friday as the ship's captain. Then, one Friday morning, the ship set off on its maiden voyage... and disappeared forever. A similar, entirely factual story is the harrowing flight of Apollo 13. coincidence much?

and check this out: LEGEND HAS IT that If 13 people sit down to dinner together, one will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary. Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor.  And if you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (think Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo -  They ALL have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven as well.

Some trace the infamy of the number 13 back to ancient Norse culture. In Norse mythology, the beloved hero Balder was killed at a banquet by the mischievous god Loki, who crashed the party of twelve, bringing the group to 13. This story, as well as the story of the Last Supper, led to one of the most entrenched 13-related beliefs: You should never sit down to a meal in a group of 13.

Another significant piece of the legend is a particularly bad Friday the 13th that occurred in the middle ages. On a Friday the 13th in 1306, King Philip of France arrested the revered Knights Templar and began torturing them, marking the occasion as a day of evil.

Both Friday and the number 13 were once closely associated with cap

ital punishment. In British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose.

all in all, its up to us whether we want to believe in it or not because most of the time, things that happen on friday the 13 are purely coincidental. in fact, if you purposely believe that mishaps will befall you on friday the 13th, it WILL happen cos you wanted it to happen so badly you looked out for it. 

Friday the 13th is just another day on the calendar, although it makes an interesting read. That's all there is to it.