Friday The 13th - Is It A Superstition?

Friday the 13th and the deadly 'Friggatriskaidekaphobia' (The fear of Friday the thirteenth) is back again to haunt the superstitious. 'Frigga' meaning Friday and 'triskaidekaphobia' a word derived from the concentration of the Greek words Paraskev and Dekatreis meaning the thirteen.

When a month begins on a Sunday the 13th falls on a Friday. According to the Gregorian calendar (introduced by Pope Gregory XIII), this day occurs at least once, but at most thrice in a year.

As per the western superstition, Friday the 13th is considered to be a day of 'bad luck'. The earliest documented reference in English occurs in the biography of Gioachino Rossini written in 1869.The biography states his belief that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day and it so happened that he died on the 13th ,a Friday in the month of November. According to folklorists , there is no written evidence before the 19th century that Friday the 13th is a bad omen.

People in America on this day, refrain from driving to their workplace or else where. They prefer to eat at home and not in restaurants. They do not schedule their wedding or any other important event on this day. According to the Christian ideology , Friday is considered unlucky as Christ was crucified.

Here are some of the occurrences as to why the number 13 and Friday is considered to be unlucky -
Digging up the past we see that Friday was known as the Black Friday after the stock market crashed and other disasters that happened since the 1800s.

In India the belief crept in after the great fire which engulfed the Uphaar Cinema Hall in Delhi in the year 1997, claiming 59 lives.

Apart from these two incidents there are many more which seem bizarre, like the Hurricane Charley in south Florida on Friday, August 13, 2004.

The 'Friday the 13th Storm' in New York happened on Friday, October 13, 2006.

It is rumored that asteroid 99942 Apophis will make a close encounter in the year 2029, on Friday the 13th.

In the British tradition, Friday was an expected day for public hangings and it was supposedly to be in 13 steps leading up to the noose.

All said, this dreaded day may not be worse than any other, but superstition seems to live in the minds of many even to this day!