~ Friday the 13th ~

Tomorrow and today for some shall(is) Friday the 13th but unless I’m missing it, nobody really places much weight in it, yet I could be wrong as I have in the past.

When I was a kid you’d hear it mentioned on the radio or see something in the paper about not to let a black cat cross your path, walk under a ladder, or step on a crack in the sidewalk. Now it’s just another day. I myself never did place much into superstition.
After all, it is just another Friday as like any other week, yet I think there are some that do still believe in superstitions, but for myself nah.

However, superstitions associating both the number 13 and Friday go back a long way. The rounding up of the Knights Templar for torture and execution by the King of France began on Friday, October 13th in 1307. Fear of the number 13 still lurks deep down in the back of
our minds today. Most buildings don’t have a 13th floor and, until recent times, almost all sports teams didn’t have a number 13 jersey. We stop at the twelve times table in school.

Ever wondered why that is? Apparently the rise of the compound three ten or thirteen came about because the minds of primitive humans couldn’t comprehend anything beyond twelve. Thirteen stood for the unknown, possibly dangerous, potentially fatal, a number full of vague and unimagined possibilities and therefore to be avoided. There is also the Biblical reference in which 13 gathered for the Last Supper where Jesus announced He would be betrayed. After that a myth grew in that if 13 people sat down for supper, the first one to leave the table will die within a year. I’ve never heard of that actually happening but, you have to admit, there is something about that number, 13.