July 13th: Friday the 13th...dun dun duuuh!

As Stevie Wonder sings, 'There is superstition, writing on the wall', and on Friday the 13th these supersitions tend to surface without fail. Friday 13th July is the third "unlucky" day this year, the others being on January 13th and April 13th. The legend of Friday the 13th being ominous and a day of bad luck seems to have appeared in the 19th century, and the fateful anticipations of the day have infected countries worldwide.


Friday the 13th: the movie

    For many, including myself, the worries and supersitions surrounding the Friday 13th are nonsensical, and just an excuse to play a few tricks on people by smashing mirrors and unleashing a pack of black cats in someone's path (I have never done either of these). However, for others this day is seriously scary. The actual condition that some people suffer from is called Friggatriskaidekaphobia - yes, I thought it was a joke too at first, but it's true. Frigg comes from the Norse goddess related to Friday, and the rest of it translates to a fear of the number thirteen. In Brazil they believe that a Friday 13th in August is the most unlucky you can get, but wait until you hear their reasoning: it's because agosto (August) rhymes with desgosto (sorrow). True story.

   Here are a few examples or "evidence" of the 13th being a day of evil:

• Judas Iscariot, the betraying disciple of Jesus, is said to be the 13th guest at the Last Supper. So therefore the number 13 led to the crucifixion of Jesus, obviously..
• A bit of Norse mythology for you. Legend has it that there were 12 gods at the banquet in Valhalla, when an uninvited guest, Loke, a demi god of mischief, crashes the party and ends up causing the death of a good god called Balder. The unlucky part here is that there were 13 gods involved.
• More recently, Hollywood have commercialized the concept into the movie Friday the Thirteenth, Freaky Friday etc, and somehow we have latched onto the idea of black cats, smashed mirrors and ladders as the very depiction of bad luck.

Having said that, there are some who have found this day lucky! On the same morning they dropped a mirror causing it to smash (major bad omens), a couple bought a lottery ticket and won $17 million on Friday 13th. Hence the phrase, Friday the 13th, unlucky for some. Was this Friday 13th July an unlucky day for you? Or did you escape the clutches of evil this time?