Friday The 13th

Yesterday and last night were madness. I was unable to post yesterday. I'm feeling ashamed of my diligent behavior so soon after my blog's inception. Alas, to over compensate I am attempting to write the longest post I can muster on a Friday afternoon.

The Longest Post Ever

Am I a superstitious person? Well, I don’t find myself readily breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks, spilling salt, walking under ladders or spying black cat crossing my path on Friday the 13th. If there are certain unseen other world powers operating on us without or knowledge why tempt fate?

On this Friday the 13th, with a bomb scare across the street this morning, I started thinking on superstitions; this one specifically. What's its historical reference? Do we will the "unlucky" by looking for it on this particular day? I asked the World Wide Web about this World Wide Superstition…

Friday the 13th
• It is said: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year.
• The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue.
• Many buildings don't have a 13th floor.
• If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names).
• There are 13 witches in a coven.
• It is said: Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams.
• Don't start a trip on Friday or you will have misfortune.
• If you cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow.
• Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck – as in the tale of H.M.S. Friday ... "One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell once and for all the widespread superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned, named "H.M.S. Friday." They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday, and was never seen or heard from again."

Possible origins
Ancient Egyptians: To ancient Egyptians life was the 12 stage process toward a heavenly afterlife. Therefore, the 13th stage represented death. Scholars believe that this Egyptian idea of 13 was perverted into symbol of death & fear from its original glorious, soul ascension representation

Patriarchal religions: 13 represented femininity; the women’s cycle in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days.) As the solar calendar (12 / male) triumphed over the lunar Calendar (13/ female) 13 became taboo.

Loki: The gods held a banquet excluding Loki, the evil one who attended regardless. He was the 13th guest. He raised hell and turned the affair into a blood bath. Since then it is believed that a 13 guest dinner party is unlucky (associated with death.)

The Bible: The last supper had 13 in attendance with one quest betraying him. The crucifixion was on a Friday.
Eve tempted Adam with the Apple on a Friday.

In Pagan culture, Friday was execution day.

Some thought that unlucky Friday and unlucky 13 became associated on a day of great catastrophe: The legend of the Knights of Templar

Or maybe it’s just that Unlucky Friday + Unlucky 13 = Unluckier Friday.

Some scholars suspect its essentially 20th-century media hype. We are still answering unanswerable questions with superstition.

Much congratulations if you are still reading this obsessive historical/ pseudo-philosophical rambling. I'm not sure if I feel worse or better.