Miscellaneously Yours

image from adultitis.org

Whether you believe in it or not, Friday the 13th always makes for an interesting day. If you do fear the day, then you believe that bad things are going to happen to you thanks to increased bad luck. If you don’t believe it’s any different than any other day, you could still encounter people in the extremes of the fearing category, or people who think they can get away with more pranks, etc. and convince people that it’s just Friday the 13th bad luck.

How did people decide that Friday the 13th was so unlucky anyway? I realize 13 is a “bad” number, but Friday’s everyone’s favorite day of the week! Wouldn’t something like Monday the 13th make more sense?

There are actually several theories as to why this is such an unlucky day. One theory says that Friday was considered an unlucky day starting around the time of The Canterbury Tales, and that numerology considers 13 unlucky. Therefore, the combination of the two is extra unlucky.

Another theory says that Friday the 13th actually originated in a Norse myth, stating that the day Friday was named after a goddess that had been banished, and  spent every Friday meeting with the devil and 11 witches to cast evil spells to influence the next week.

I suppose the best any of us can do today is just avoid black cats, don’t break mirrors, give randomly placed large stepladders a wide berth, and stay away from scary men in creepy face masks.

By the way, does anyone else find it ironic that Friday the 13th falls the day before Valentine’s Day? I wonder if people planned it that way…