Why is Friday 13th deemed Unlucky?
Triskaidekaphobia is a powerful thing. From the Greek, that word means simply fear of thirteen.
Theories abound as to why this particular day is so shrouded in superstition.
Unluckiness of "13"
According to a folklore historian, the unlucky nature of the number "13" originated with a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party in Valhalla. The trickster god Loki, who was not invited, arrived as the 13th guest, and arranged for Höðr to shoot Balder with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. Balder died, and the whole Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned. It was a bad, unlucky day. This major event in Norse mythology caused the number 13 to be considered unlucky.
Christian associations
The superstition seems to relate to various things, like the story of Jesus' last supper and crucifixion in which there were 13 individuals present in the Upper Room on the 13th of Nisan Maundy Thursday, the night before his death on Good Friday.
One of the most popular theories, however, links Friday the 13th with the fall of a fearsome group of legendary warriors—the Knights Templar.
Founded around 1118 as a monastic military order devoted to the protection of pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land following the Christian capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, the Knights Templar quickly became one of the richest and most influential groups of the Middle Ages, thanks to lavish donations from the crowned heads of Europe, eager to curry favour with the fierce Knights. By the turn of the 14th century, the Templars had established a system of castles, churches and banks throughout Western Europe. And it was this astonishing wealth that would lead to their downfall
For the Templars, that end began in the early morning hours of Friday, October 13, 1307.
It was also believed to be the number of witches needed to officially make a coven.
In Scotland, thirteen is known as the "devil's dozen."
Why Friday is feared?
In ancient times, farmers set aside Friday as the festival day to thank the gods for the crops. If the harvest was bad, well, you can understand why Friday might be blamed.
Fishermen say, or at least they used say, "A Friday's sail, always fail," and they claimed it was not totally because they want the weekend off.
But the bad reputation of both Friday and the number 13 started long before that.
Some believe that it was on a Friday that Eve gave Adam her apple, and many of the other calamitous events of the Bible -- the murder of Abel, the stoning of Stephen, Noah's deluge and the massacre of the innocents by Herod -- also are said to have happened on Friday.
In Norse mythology, Freya, the goddess of love, was banished to the mountains as a witch on a Friday. She and 11 other witches met weekly with the Devil, naturally on a Friday, hence the appellation of Friday "the witches' Sabbath." When the witches' Sabbath also occurred on the dread 13th, things were even more ominous.
The Norse also believed Friday was named after Frigga, the goddess of marriage who later was confused with Freya.
The folklore and mythologies of various cultures are replete with tales of Friday rites connected to the worship of love -- Freya's legend was involved in this sort of thing -- which turned into orgies and debauchery, further besmirching the day.
Let’s reclaim Friday the 13th.
Instead of being a day of fear it should be about female festivity. Friday is the only day in the British week named after a woman – Freyja.
Humans became cognizant that the moon had 13 cycles every years and then clocked that the average woman had 13 menstrual cycles each year. The same number as the moon.
Science has yet to explain the freaky connection between the moon cycles and women’s fertility cycle, but it is a magical nugget of information to hang on to.
When a woman was on her period, she was seen as embodying divine powers and was considered to be imbued with wisdom and intuition.
Friday – when it coincides with the 13th day of the month, should seen as a day that is imbued with feminine energy and creativity.
Here at Magic Touch Gothic we have our very own Friday 13th spell kit, why not harness the feminine energy and bring a bit of luck your way!
