Friday the 13th!

So today is Friday the 13th! Unlike most people, I'm not worried about misfortune or bad things happening. It's actaully one of my favorite days because rarely does the 13th land on a Friday.

At the JHS I work at here in Japan, the teachers sometimes explain things to the kids in Japanese, for the sack of convience and to speed things up. I recently had a class with one of my JTEs (Japanese teacher of Engligh), and although sometimes I tune out when he speaks in Japanese- that particular day I listened. We were discussing days of the week. Since he noticed Friday the 13th, he brought it up. I mentioned I thought it was a great day, while he commented on how it's associated with bad luck. Then he proceeded to explain in Japanese the origin of Friday the 13th and it being considered unlucky. His explaination was that Jesus Christ died on a Friday and that Friday fell on the 13th- and so that's why people in western cultures believe it's unlucky. I understood his Japanese explanation, and said-- No I really don't think that's why Friday the 13th is unlucky. To that he asked me, "Why then?" I had no reply.

So I decided to do some research and find out. This way I can stop him in class when he tells this redicoulus story of how Christ died on Friday the 13th marking it as an unlucky day. So , here's what I found:

Why is Friday the 13th considered Unlucky?

There are myths about both Fridays and the number 13, and why both are considered unlucky.

Fridays, for example, are hailed as a particularly significant day in the Christian tradition. Obviously, there is Good Friday, the day Jesus Christ was crucified. Ok, so Christ was crucified on a Friday , but no mention of it being the 13th! But according to Christian lore, Adam and Eve also supposedly ate the forbidden fruit on a Friday, the Great Flood started on a Friday, the builders of the Tower of Babel were tongue-tied on a Friday and the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday.

Of course, the Bible doesn't specifically note many these events occurring on Fridays, and Emery explains some of the tradition may have stemmed from the fact that pre-Christian pagan cultures hailed Friday as holy days. The word "Friday" is, in fact, derived from a Norse deity who was worshipped on the sixth day of the week and who represented marriage and fertility. Fridays in the early Norse culture were associated with love and considered a good day for weddings.

Over time, however, mythology transformed the Norse fertility goddess into a witch, and Fridays became an unholy Sabbath. Incidentally, the goddess' sacred animal was a cat, which may explain the legendary connection between witches and cats, as well as the superstition about black cats heralding bad luck.

In addition to the legendary significance of Fridays, the sixth day of the week also was execution day in ancient Rome and later Hangman's Day in Britain.

The number 13 also has mythological and religious symbolism.

Both the Hindus and Vikings reportedly had a myth in which 12 gods were invited to a gathering and Loki, the god of mischief, crashed the party and incited a riot. Tradition in both cultures holds that 13 people at a dinner party is bad luck and will end in the death of the party-goers.

Following in that vein, the Last Supper in Christian tradition hosted 13 people and one betrayed Christ, resulting in the crucifixion.

The number 13 also has been associated with death in other cultures. The ancient Egyptians, for example, believed life unfolded in 12 stages, and the 13th stage was death. The Egyptians considered death a part of their ultimate journey and looked forward to the spiritual transformation ‹ thus 13 was not an unlucky number in their culture ‹ but like so many others, the tradition warped through time and cultures, eventually associating the number 13 with a more negative and fearful interpretation of death.

Finally, the number 13 may have an unlucky connotation because of its association with the lunar calendar (there are 13 lunar cycles in a year) and with femininity (women have 13 menstrual cycles in a year).

Then, there's the event that ties the two superstitions together.

Though it's clear that superstitions associating Fridays and the number 13 with misfortune date back to the ancient times, some sources assign the precise origin of the black spot on the day itself, Friday the 13th, to a specific historical event;.

It was on Friday, Oct. 13, 1307, that France's King Philip IV had the Knights Templar rounded up for torture and execution. The Knights Templar were an order of warriors within the Roman Catholic Church who banded together to protect Christian travellers visiting Jerusalem in the centuries after the Crusades. The Knights eventually became a rich, powerful ‹ and allegedly corrupt order within the church and were executed for heresy.

So there you have it. There are a series of historic events and myths, may of which were tainted by the Chatholic institution into having negative connotations. True Christ was crucified on a Friday (he didn't die till Saturday by some sources) but no proof of it being on the 13th.

Sorry Mr. XXX (JTE), Friday the 13th is not unlucky because Christ died on Friday the 13th.